The Greatest Week In History - Tuesday/Wednesday

When the history of this world is finally written up with an eternal perspective, many events will vie as being worthy to be included. However, because of their significance to every person who has ever lived on this earth or who will ever live on it, the events of the last week of the Savior’s life—from the Sunday morning of his triumphal entry into the city of Jerusalem to the Sunday morning of the resurrection—will undoubtedly be acclaimed as the greatest week in history. Without the events of that week, particularly those which took place in the Garden of Gethsemane and at the time of the resurrection, everything else is virtually meaningless.

Obviously an article such as this could barely list, let alone discuss, all the week’s events that are recorded in the scriptures. Thus, the article will discuss in some detail only one or two events from each day, and it will mention only briefly some of the others.

The Third and Fourth Days
Tuesday and Wednesday

The events of Tuesday and Wednesday will be considered together, not only because many of the events are related but because it is not always evident from the scriptures exactly which events happened on which days.

After answering the Pharisees, the Savior turned questioner and asked them: “What think ye of Christ? whose son is he?” Their prompt reply was, “The Son of David.

“He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord. …

“If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?

“And no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions.” (Matt. 22:42–46.)

The Savior then turned to the disciples and taught them, in the hearing of the multitude, of the false teachings and practices of the scribes and the Pharisees. He frequently used the word hypocrite in referring to the self-assumed teachers, and he concluded his denunciation by referring to them as “serpents” and a “generation of vipers.” (Matt. 23:33.)

The Savior then lamented over Jerusalem, reminding the people of the many prophets who had been sent to this area, and yet how frequently the people had rejected these prophets. He also pronounced the destruction that was yet to come upon the people and upon the city, stating concerning the temple “there shall not be left here one stone upon another.” (Matt. 24:2.)

Next, the Savior went to the Mount of Olives, where the disciples met with him privately and asked him to explain his prophecies concerning the destruction of Jerusalem and the subsequent events that were to follow until the end of the world. The teachings of the Savior on this subject occupy three chapters in the gospels (Matt. 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21).

However, to make the teachings even more clear and plain, the Savior revealed them to the Prophet Joseph Smith in this dispensation, and they are printed in the writings of Joseph Smith, chapter 1, in the Pearl of Great Price. The Savior specifically stated, “I speak these things unto you for the elect’s sake.” (JS—M 1:23.) Thus, every person who has elected and determined to follow the Savior and his teachings should carefully review these inspired teachings.

After answering the specific points raised by his disciples, the Savior concluded his teachings to them that day by giving the last three parables that are recorded in the New Testament: the parable of the Ten Virgins, the parable of the Entrusted Talents, and the parable of the Inevitable Judgment.

The Savior then returned to Bethany to spend the night and to prepare for the trying ordeal that was ahead.

Daniel H. Ludlow, “The Greatest Week in History,” Ensign, Apr 1972, 34