Holy Week Reflections
Join us for Easter MorningHoly Week Reflections
Join us for Easter MorningHoly Week, or the week before Easter, is a very important season for all Christians
The days leading up to Easter, known as Holy Week, are a time when we reflect on how good God is in our lives, and celebrate and remember all He has done for us. When we reflect on the work that Jesus did before the cross, we can be celebrate the joy that comes on Easter morning!
Before you celebrate Easter morning with brunch and an egg hunt, use these Holy Week reflections to remind yourself about God’s great love for you!
Join us this Easter Sunday
Whether church is a normal part of your life or not, we would love for you to join us this Easter Sunday. We’ll have familiar music and an encouraging message for you.
Palm Sunday
Luke 19:37-40
When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen: “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”
“I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”
Luke 19:37-40
Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week and the end of our long approach towards Easter. It is a day characterized by joy, worship, and praise of the coming Messiah. The people of Israel didn’t know the work that Jesus came to do, but they praised God with shouts of “Hosanna” and “Blessed is the King”.
The work that Jesus came to do in the city of Jerusalem started with an act of worship, of recognizing who Jesus was as the Messiah. As the religious leaders try to quiet those worshiping, Jesus warns them that even if no one cried out, the rocks themselves would praise His name.
As we prepare our hearts for Easter Sunday, it is important to posture ourselves in a heart of worship: praising God for what He has done for us and for who He is.
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Monday
Mark 11:15-18
“On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. He said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.”
Christ came to dwell among us and to set right that which was made wrong when we broke the world with our sin. We feel the ache today of everything we long to be made right.
After Jesus entered Jerusalem, He went to the temple, supposedly the holiest place in the whole city, only to find that the place meant for worship for all was filled with people doing business, selling animals, and exchanging money. This defilement of His Father’s house was so upsetting to Jesus that He made a whip and drove out the money changers and salesmen, upturning the tables as He went.
He wanted to make holy and pure that which was always supposed to be pure and holy. The Bible calls us “temples of the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Jesus came to purify and make clean that which has been defiled, and just as He cleared the temple of impurities, He cleanses us and washes us white as snow.
Tuesday
Mark 12:41-44
“Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents. Calling His disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”
Poverty, pandemics, violence, and injustice can make our world feel more broken than we can possibly begin to solve. But during the week before His crucifixion he made note of a poor woman who gave all she had to the Lord. In the time before He made the ultimate sacrifice for us, Jesus showed His disciples the value of sacrifice and sacrificial giving.
Wednesday
John 12:3-5, 7-8
“Then Mary (a friend of Jesus) took an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped His feet with her hair.
But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray Him, objected, “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.”….
“Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”
We don’t anoint our dead with oil today, so the significance of Mary pouring oil on Jesus is sometimes lost on us. Jesus alluded to His death many times in the days before His crucifixion, but unlike many of the disciples, Mary understands and is moved to sacrifice and humility.
Mary honored Jesus in a way that was deeply intimate, humble, and tender. She cherished her time with Him and displayed it in such an extravagant way that it seemed shameful to the other disciples.
Jesus’ work on the cross wasn’t just for us to have eternal life but for us to have an intimate and extravagant relationship with Him. Just as Mary did, we are invited to enter into a relationship of love, devotion, and intimacy with Christ because of His work on the cross
Maundy Thursday
Matthew 26:26-29
While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”
On the night He was betrayed, Jesus gathered with His disciples to observe the Passover. He washed the feet of His disciples and sat with them to break bread. He compared the bread and the wine of the Passover meal to His body and blood, foreshadowing His sacrifice and suffering on the cross and His work as the Passover lamb of God.
The mystery of the Lord’s Supper is one that guides us into further intimacy with Him and reminds us of His sacrifice for us. As we approach Easter, practicing the Lord’s Supper fixes our eyes on the cross and reminds us of the suffering and the cost of our salvation, as well as Christ’s extravagant sacrifice and love for us.
Good Friday
Luke 23:38-43
There was a written notice above him, which read: this is the King of the Jews. One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
Good Friday is a day of both mourning and celebrating for believers. It is a day when we celebrate and give thanks for Jesus’ death on the cross, because without it we would have no life. And yet we mourn because Christ had to suffer death, even death on a cross, because of our great sin. He took our sins and evils upon Himself to save us.
Yet, upon the cross, Jesus spoke to a criminal sentenced to death. This unnamed criminal saw Jesus as Lord and asked Jesus to remember him. This simple act of faith was all it took for Jesus to welcome this man into paradise with Him. Jesus’ work on the cross, His death, and His sacrifice for our sins, is what gave this criminal hope. Even as we mourn today for our part in the death of Christ, we anxiously look forward to Sunday and to being in paradise with Jesus.
Holy Saturday
Luke 23:55-56
“On Saturday, the disciples rested to follow the commands of the Sabbath and returned in the evening to prepare the body with spices.”
Holy Saturday is often overlooked during Holy Week, because it seems like we’re just waiting for Easter morning to come. Waiting seems to be an integral part of Christian life though. We wait for the Kingdom of God to fully come, we wait for Christ’s return, we wait for all things to be made new.
We may feel like those early believers who saw Jesus sealed in a tomb and felt discouraged, hopeless, and lost. Our world feels broken and like it only gets worse.
But they did not know who or what they were waiting for. They didn’t have the hope of the coming resurrection; we do! And we can continue the work of the kingdom of God while we wait. On this Holy Saturday, lean into the waiting and rejoice knowing what is to come!
Resurrection or Easter Sunday!
Matthew 28:5-6
The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.
He is Risen! Easter Sunday is a joyous, celebratory day for Christians, because we celebrate not just the death of Jesus Christ but His resurrection and ultimate defeat of death! Today is a day for celebration, for praise, and for joyful and hopeful expectation for Christ to come.
Jesus has defeated death. He offers to make you new, and He wants you to be part of His making our world new.