Happy Holy Week to you! We’re on the cusp of Easter, the day when we celebrate Jesus’s resurrection from the dead. In order to have Easter and resurrection, however, we must have Good Friday, the day when Jesus was crucified and died. And all of the week leading up to Easter is considered Holy Week, a week filled with very important events and lessons for us from Jesus’s actions, teaching, experiences and commitments.
In thinking of Holy Week, let’s consider that Jesus was wholly dedicated to going through the entire week with all of the experiences, persecutions, accusations, betrayals and abandonments, pains and the conclusion of His life in a gory and brutal death. Maybe one of the most powerful displays of Jesus’s total dedication to God’s plan for His life can be seen in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus is undergoing tremendous stress and strain. Feel free to read Matthew 26:36-46 to see Jesus’s whole dedication to expressing divine love through His life, suffering and death. Furthermore, consider what Paul says about Jesus dying for us in Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
In addition to Jesus being wholly dedicated to going through Holy Week, let’s also think about the shortfalls of the disciples’ dedication to Jesus. During Holy Week, we also see the “holey” dedication of Jesus’s followers—the gaps and holes that were revealed when there was stress, pressure, fear, uncertainty, danger, accusations and violence. For example, when Peter was questioned about following Jesus, he denied knowing Jesus three times. During the Last Supper, he adamantly proclaimed that he’d follow Jesus to death. Peter had good intentions but there were gaps in the execution of his intentions. Perhaps all of us can relate to Peter and having some holes or gaps in how well we follow Jesus.
Finally, when we think of Holy Week, we can recognize that indeed, this is a holy week as it reminds us of Jesus’s holy choices and existence. In thinking of the events of Holy Week, here are a few things to consider:
- Jesus’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem was a holy celebration, an outpouring of worship and praise for Jesus.
- Jesus going to the temple to cleanse and purge it from the money changers and shady characters showed that Jesus wanted to purify and make God’s house holy.
- The Last Supper with Jesus’s closest followers was a holy experience in that Jesus loved His disciples to the end (John 13:1), and He washed their feet to cleanse them and demonstrate being a servant role model for His followers.
- Jesus’s death on the cross was a demonstration of His holiness as He chose to forgive the people who brutally murdered Him, along with the scoffing spectators and crowd that gathered to watch Him die.
As we think about this Holy Week, let’s take some moments to think about these words: wholly, holey and holy. Let’s reflect on how these words relate to us in this week as we anticipate Easter, Jesus’s resurrection and ultimate display of redemption!
