Tomorrow is Holy Tuesday, History and Spiritual Meaning

On Great Tuesday of Holy Week, no such significant events in the earthly life of Christ took place as, for example, on Great Thursday, which we will talk about later. However, on this day he preached for the last time in the Jerusalem temple and told parables, the meaning of which remained in the life of the Christian church and society as a whole for thousands of years.

In addition, in response to the question of the Pharisees, which contained a trap, because the answer "yes" would have caused discontent among the inhabitants of Judea, and "no" - an accusation of incitement to rebellion against the Roman authorities, Jesus uttered the minted formula "to God what is God's, to Caesar what is Caesar's."

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Here, as modern filmmakers would say, the visual solution is also interesting - before answering the Pharisees, Christ told them to bring him a coin that was in circulation at that time (it is believed that it was a denarius) and asked them what was depicted on it. The Pharisees answered that Caesar (hence the above-mentioned formula), but Jesus had already driven them into a logical trap by showing that money (in this case, the coin symbolizing it), taxes, and power are phenomena of the same order. and, therefore, what questions can there be?

In the parables of the unfaithful and the prudent servants and the ten virgins, Christ uses different examples to convey the same idea - a person must be ready to meet God every day, so one must not allow oneself to be lazy and put off important things "for later" - including in the spiritual sense. In essence, he showed almost the same thing (again, using a "visual example") the day before, when he cursed the fig tree that did not bear fruit - that one cannot test God's patience endlessly.

In everyday life, it is assumed (although there are no clear rules on this matter) that on Great Tuesday one must finish non-urgent household chores in order to spend the rest of Holy Week in spiritual reflection. On this day it is also customary to begin painting Easter eggs. But it is important to remember that such painting is an activity that requires spiritual concentration and prayer.

Photo: Titian. Caesar's denarius Wikipedia