Holy Week USA, 2005

Christians are now celebrating Easter, and the national events of this early arriving Holy Week have been quite mysterious and nothing short of breathtaking. Passion Week comprises the very last week of the earthly life of Jesus. It began on Palm Sunday and concluded on the morning of Easter Sunday.

The First Day in Passion Week is Palm Sunday
There was a great crowd that went to Bethany to see Jesus (John 12:9-11).

Holy Week 2005, began with The US House of Representatives and US Senate, having failed in their maneuvers to stop Judge George Greer of Florida from removing the feeding tube of a brain damaged women, assembled their members on Palm Sunday, in an attempt to create new law to save her life.

20 March 2005: Unknown to school administrators, an American boy in Red Cloud, Minnesota is planning the murders of his family and schoolmates.

Monday, The Second Day in Passion-Week
Jesus made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. (Matt. 21:1-9; Mark 11:1-10; Luke 19:28-40; John 12:12-19)

21 March 2005: The United States Senate passed an emergency bill, S686 (203-58), calling for a federal court to review the case of Terri Shiavo, an innocent disabled woman, who the judiciary of the State of Florida, had sentenced to a death by starvation. Her parents felt hopeful.

21 March 2005: A sixteen-year-old student, Jeff Weise, allegedly shot and killed ten innocent people, including himself, his grandparents, and his own schoolmates, and injured at least fifteen others.

Tuesday, The Third Day in Passion Week
Jesus cleansed the temple at Jerusalem (Matt. 21:12-13; Mark 11:15-17; Luke 19:45-46).

22 March 2005: Attempting to save an innocent disabled Florida woman from court ordered starvation; the United States House of Representatives immediately backed the Palm Sunday bill from the Senate. In the early morning hours, it was signed into law by President George W. Bush, who had traveled from Texas to Washington D.C. for the emergency legislation.

22 March 2005: Minnesotans were stunned to learn of a second fatal school shooting at a school in the last 18 months. The lives of two innocent students were taken at Rocori High School in Cold Spring in September 2003, allegedly by another student, fifteen year old John Jason McLaughlin, who now awaits trial in the case.

Ash Wednesday
Jesus rested for the last time before His Agony, and Judas began planning the betrayal (Matt. 26:14-16; Mark 14:10-11; Luke 22:3-6).

23 March 2005: Florida Judge James Whittamore, ignoring petitions from the United States Congress and the President to take a new look at the case, refused to stop the court ordered starvation of a disabled, brain-damaged women, saying that her family would be unlikely to win the court case.

23 March 2005: Residents on the Red Lake Indian reservation in Minnesota are trying to understand what made sixteen-year-old Jeff Weise go on a bloody shooting rampage which resulted in death or injury to more than twenty-four innocent people. Community activist Audrey Thayer says that society needs to find ways to reach out to children like Jeff Weise and make them feel valued.

Maundy Thursday
Jesus made ready the Passover Lamb and instituted the Lord’s Supper. He suffered in agony at at the Garden of Gethsemane. Later that night Jesus was betrayed by Judas Iscariot, arrested and tried (Matt. 26:36-56; Mark 14:32-52; Luke 22:39-53; John 18:1-12).

Thursday, 24 March 2005: The United States Supreme Court refused to hear an emergency appeal by the parents of Terri Schiavo to restore food and water to their dying daughter. Judge George Greer denied Florida Governor Jeb Bush's petition to have the state take custody of Mrs. Schiavo. Armed officers of the court watch Mary Schindler's visits to her dying child, as she is forbidden to place even a drop of water upon the parched lips of her daughter.

Thursday, 24 March 2005: Minnesota authorities were still trying to determine the motive for the bloody rampage of the sixteen year old Jeff Weise which resulted in the murders of ten innocents. They believe that the youngster used the nickname "Todesengel", which is German for "Angel of Death."

Good Friday
Jesus was led to the cross and crucified at 9:00 a.m. and died at 3:00 p.m. and was buried later in the day (Matt. 27:31-60; Mark 15:20-46; Luke 23:26-54; John 19:16-42).

25 March 2005: There seem to be no options left to save an innocent child of God from the tyranny of the Judiciary. Terri will die very soon, perhaps during this Holy Week.

25 March 2005: Cody Thunder, a student shot by a classmate at Red Lake Reservation, Minnesota, today, was released from hospital with the bullet still lodged in his hip. Along a chain link fence at the school are a long row of white crosses representing those who were killed by a fifteen year old youth.

The Sabbath
The body of Jesus lay in the sepulcher while Roman guards kept watch (Matt. 27:61-66; Mark 15:47; Luke 23:55-56).

The supporters trying to save the life of a brain-damaged Florida woman, begin to accept that her death is imminent, as she is deprived of water for the eighth day.

26 March 2005: A broken-hearted native American tribe on a reservation in the far north of the United States begin burying their dead in traditional manner. They were slaughtered by a young member of the tribe. President George Bush requests the nation remember the people of Red Cloud in their prayers.

Resurrection Sunday
Christ rose from the Dead.
'On the Third Day He rose again from the Dead; He ascended into Heaven'

A Passion Play for 2005