Journey with me through Holy Week. Experience my reflections from Palm Sunday through the Resurrection, outlining main events of each day and my personal thoughts. My reflections are a result of meditation and conversations with God, not to reteach all aspects of Holy Week. I hope you relate to these thoughts and new ones grow within you.

Palm Sunday

Main Events: 

• Jesus enters Jersuem
• Jesus weeps over the city
• Jesus looks around the Temple

Reflection

• Do you have any baseline expectations of the Son? 
  • Even the people of Jerusalem at expected a king-warrior to defeat the Roman empire. 
  • Expectations are a foundation for reliability, which builds confidence and strengthens relationships. What do you expect from Jesus?
• Looking ahead, how do you treat the Son when your expectations are shattered, do you become like the crowds on Friday? 
  • The people of that day expected a forceful and violent King to sweep across the Roman empire in victory, but Jesus’ strategy was love, forgiveness, healing, teaching and doing the will of the Father. When the expectation wasn’t met, indignation took over.
• What level of influence do others have in your established expectations? 
  • Consider the concept of group think, was everyone convinced from the beginning Jesus was supposed to be a sword wielding King to defeat Roman rule or were people slowly onboarded into those ideas by others? 
  • The prophets foretold of King Jesus coming humbling and gently [Zechariah 9:9] but they did not understand that Jesus’ kingdom coming to earth through his presence, with love and forgiveness, would not only be better but defeat the true enemy, which is death and the devil. 

Holy Monday

Main Events

• Jesus curses the fig tree
• Jesus overturns tables at the Temple
• Jesus teaches in the temple and the leaders become indignant because of his wonderful actions

Reflection

• The first time Jesus entered the temple in Jerusalem he just looked around [Mark 11:11]. The second time Jesus entered the temple, it was with authority and correction [Matthew 21:12-13].
• These occurrences reminded me of Jesus’ first coming into the world in comparison to his foretold second coming. The first time Jesus came into the world was to save the lost [Luke 19:10], to save sinners [1 Timothy 1:15], to offer eternal life [John 3:16], to take away the sins of the world [John 1:29] and to not condemn [John 3:17]. Just like His first entry into the temple was not to act but observe. The second entry into the temple and just like His predicted second coming, Jesus came with all authority to correct and take action. At the end of the age Jesus will come to judge, repay each person’s deeds and to rule.
• Cleansing the temple focuses on restoring purity and its intended purpose. Think of the benches, the merchants and the tables as sin in our life. The Temple was meant to be a sacred place, yet it had become cluttered with exploitation and distraction. In the same way, humans become crowded with sin. Both sin and the merchants distracted from the purpose of the temple and our ability to be close to God. Sin and the merchants tainted the holy spaces and Jesus is the only one with authority to clean it out. A foreshadow to the blood spilled on Friday that will cleanse our sin. Just as He refused to let the temple remain defiled, Jesus refuses to leave us enslaved to sin. His actions on Holy Monday anticipate a deeper cleansing that will not come through force, but through sacrifice.
• May Psalm 139:23-24 be our prayer. 

Holy Tuesday

Main Events

• Jesus teaches his disciples about faith based on the withered fig tree
• Jesus returns to the temple to teach and address the priests/leaders hypocrisy and corruption
• The Pharisees and Sadducees ask Jesus trapping questions
• Jesus gives 7 woes to the Pharisees
• Jesus tells his disciples information in advance about the end of the age

Reflection

• Jesus spent time teaching and using parables. He used three parables [Parable of the Two Sons, Parable of the Tenants, Parable of the Wedding Banquet] to address and expose the hypocrisy, corruption and impending judgment of the elders and priests. He also used parables to teach spiritual readiness and responsibility while waiting for the return of Jesus [Parable of the 10 Virgins and Parable of the Talents]. Matthew 13:10-17 tells us that Jesus used parables to reveal the secrets of the kingdom of heaven to his disciples while concealing them from those with hardened hearts. 
• All this made me think of how Jesus speaks to us today
  • Through his word [2 Timothy 3:16–17]
  • Through His Spirit in us [John 14:26]
  • Personal convictions 
  • Through the church/community
  • Through fellow believers 
• The Resurrection of Christ has transformed Jesus’ communication pattern from indirect methods (parables) to personal and internal (Holy Spirit). 

Spy Wednesday

Main Events

• Jesus continues teaching
• Jesus is anointed by Mary
• Judas agrees to betray Jesus

Reflection

• Wednesday of Holy Week timeline is often called spy Wednesday because it commemorates the day Judas Iscariot conspired to betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. Judas acted as an informant or “spy” to hand Jesus over.
• With Judas as the primary spy in this setting, I considered other spies of the bible.
  • Twelve spies sent by Moses [Numbers 13-14]
  • Joshua sent two spies to Jericho [Joshua 2]
  • David sent Hushai as an informant to Absalom’s army [2 Samuel 15-17]
• What all these stories have in common is that these spies were sent during critical turning points. Just like Judas’ betrayal marks the turning point in Passion week, directly leading into the fulfillment of prophecy, the other spies marked turning points for entering the promised land and finding territory. Essentially, spying happens when big decisions must be made. 
• Focusing on the spies sent by Moses, they were sent to see and be the eyes for what others could not see and report back. After the resurrection of Jesus Christ, something very similar happens. Mary Magdalene goes out to the empty tomb and reports what she saw to others who were not there. Just like the spies, she carried the news about a reality others haven’t experienced yet.
• The twelve spies were split in responses, 10 feared and 2 had faith. After the resurrection people respond in the same two ways, with disbelief and doubt [Luke 24:11, John 20:24-29] and then worship and joy. The Resurrection, like the spy report, forces a decision of how you will react/act.
• Whether you are spying out land or threats, the purpose is to reveal truth. The Resurrection reveals victory over death!

Maundy Thursday

Main Events

• Passover meal and washing of feet
• Garden of Gathsemane
  • Jesus prays for his disciples and all believers

Reflection

• We know the Gospels are written from each writer’s own point of view and I’ve never appreciated that more than I have this week. The compassion, love and detailed account of John’s telling of Thursday’s events are so touching [John 13-17]. I love his account because many well known scriptures about Jesus being the way, the truth and the life, the metaphor of the vine and many more are found in these chapters. 
• Something else that made me swallow a lump in my throat is Mark 14:33-34. Imagine knowing how close you are to your death and as comfort you just want your close friends around you to confide in them how deeply disturbed you are. Similarly, because we are friends of Jesus [John 15:15], in sorrow and deeply troubled moments we can confide in Him too!
• This day, Jesus gives a new commandment: Love one another [John 13:34-35]. With this commandment Jesus is setting a new standard and example of how love should be shown. It’s not dependent on how people treat you, instead your love should be dependent only on how Jesus has loved you with a true and unconditional love. It’s that same love for us, that Jesus was willing to die for us!

Good Friday

Main Events

• Judas betrays Jesus with a kiss and is arrested
• Jewish trials
• Judas hangs himself
• Peter denies Jesus three times
• Roman trials
• Jesus is crucified 

Reflection

• That’s why Good Friday is “good”! The death benefits (sin debt paid, broken power of the devil, secured place for us in heaven) that come to us because of Jesus’ love motivation. The command to love is followed by a sacrificial action. 1 John 3:16 defines love based on Jesus’ death! It says,” This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.”
• The cross is not just an event, but the supreme, unconditional and sacrificial love of God in action. It wasn’t the nails that kept him there, it was love. Love was the motivation to bring humanity back to God.

• John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life
• Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
• John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
• Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
• Love continues today, on the cross!

Silent Saturday

Main Events

• Jesus lays in the tomb

Reflection

• I was listening to a devotional about Saturday’s events and the narrator made a profound observation. God rested on the Sabbath after finishing his work with creation and now Jesus “rested” in the tomb on the Sabbath after finishing his work on the cross. Today, we should rest in the finished works of Christ!
• Another full circle moment, humanity was deceived in the garden of Eden. Jesus’ tomb was in a garden according to John 19:41-42. On Sunday, when Jesus rises, it will be redemption taking place in the garden. Jesus defeats deception when He rises and fully reclaim all humanity in another garden moment. Truth lives, just as he said he would.

Resurrection Sunday

Main Events

• Jesus has risen!
• Jesus appears to his disciples

Reflection

• Mary Magdalene was told to “come see” and to “go tell”. We have the same charge today! To be witnesses to the love of Jesus and to tell others about his free gift of salvation by believing that God raised him from the dead [Romans 10:9].

He is risen! 

Happy Resurrection Sunday!

See you next week!