By Protopresbyter Fr. Antonios Christou
My beloved readers, with the help and grace of God, we have reached the end of Holy and Great Lent. As is well known, Great Lent is essentially completed on the Saturday of the Resurrection of Lazarus; on Palm Sunday we are permitted to eat fish, and from the evening, with the Service of the Bridegroom, the strict fast of Holy Week begins.
As for what we celebrate each day and experience during Holy and Great Week, we have dealt with this in other articles in the past. In the present article, we will concern ourselves with the content and perspective of the phrase of our Lord found in our title: “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem…”. It is a phrase from the Gospel according to Mark, read on the Fifth Sunday of Lent, but it is also an opportunity, more broadly, to recall the entire relevant Gospel passage:
"Now they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was going before them; and they were amazed. And as they followed they were afraid. Then He took the twelve aside again and began to tell them the things that would happen to Him: 'Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death and deliver Him to the Gentiles; and they will mock Him, and scourge Him, and spit on Him, and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again'” (Mark 10:32–34).
