Entering Jerusalem

 John’s Gospel tells us about the three Passover feasts Jesus celebrated during His public ministry. The first Pascha was associated with the purification of the temple (cf. 2,13-25), the second was the bread (cf. 6,4), and the third Pascha of Jesus’ death and resurrection (cf. eg 12,1; 13,1) became “his” great Pascha and the basis of the Christian celebration of Easter, the Pasch of Christians. The synoptic has only one Pasch: the Pasch of the Cross and the Resurrection. Jerusalem. In geographic terms, the term is also “output.” Lake Gennesaret is located approximately 200 meters below sea level, and Jerusalem is at an average altitude of 760 meters. All three synopticists describe the stages of this ascent as Jesus’ three predictions of suffering. At the same time, they indicate the inner ascension that took place during the outward journey: ascending to the temple, a place that, according to the Book of Deuteronomy, God chose to “dwell in his name” (12,11; 14,23). The last goal of this “ascent of Jesus” is to sacrifice himself on the cross, which is the culmination of the Old Testament sacrifices. The Hebrews describe this outcome as climbing into a state not made by this ascent before the very face of God but through the cross—an ascent to “love to the end” (cf. John 13:1), which is God’s true peak.
The immediate destination of the pilgrimage of Jesus is the holy city of Jerusalem with its temple and the “Jewish Passover” as John calls it (cf. Jn 2:13). Jesus went on a journey with his twelve disciples. The evangelists Matthew and Mark tell us that as they left Jericho, Jesus followed the “great crowd” (Mt 20:29; Mark 10:46). Expectations of what was to come intensified at this last stage, thanks to an event that brought Jesus back into view.