Easter Explained: An 8-Day Guide to Celebrating Holy Week

Scripture Reading: Psalms 118, Zechariah 9:9-17, John 12:12-19

1600 years ago Christians began calling the last days of Jesus’ life “Holy Week.” Today is Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday remembers the day Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey like a rival king to challenge Caesar and his Roman empire.

Like every other empire, Rome controlled its people with the threat of death. But Jesus came to disarm all kings of their favorite weapon by dying’and then rising from his grave. Jesus has just performed his seventh and final miracle in John’s Gospel. He raised his friend Lazarus from the dead (John 11:43-44). It’s final proof that Jesus’ Kingship will disarm death and grant life. All of Jesus’ miracles hint toward this in some way. Turning water into wine, healing a sick boy, raising a paralytic from his bed, and feeding over 5,000 people with a boy’s lunch are all small-scale resurrections. And the people of Israel had an inkling of what all this meant. To them, Jesus was their long-awaited Messiah, the promised King of Israel who would come to heal their bodies, feed their bellies, and take down Rome’s deadly rule. And in a very important sense, they were right (John 6:15).

When Jesus saddles a donkey (the traditional beast of kings) and rides into Jerusalem, the people understand it as the coronation ceremony of their death-defeating Messiah. Waving palm branches, a crowd gathers around Jesus and sings from Psalm 118: ‘Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the king of Israel!’

John tells us this is all done to fulfill a prophecy given by Zechariah (Zechariah 9:9-10). Jesus intentionally rides in on a donkey to inflame their hopes that he is the King they have been waiting for. He is the King that can defeat death. He will be victorious over all rival claims to his throne and he will save his people (John 12:15-16). That’s what ‘hosanna’ means”save us.’ It’s the cry of those who long for the King prophesied by Zechariah.

But unlike other kings, Jesus hasn’t come to kill, but to die. Like a seed must be buried before it can become a tree, Jesus must be buried before his Kingdom comes. He must master death by first dying. Anyone who wants to join his Kingdom must be willing to accept his death (John 12:24-26). The whole reason Jesus came to earth wasn’t to conquer empires by killing them, but to die under their influence (John 12:27). Jesus rides into Jerusalem like a King, but like a King who knows the only way to defeat death is to die.

That’s why these events and teachings don’t please everyone, especially the Jewish religious establishment. Many within this religious elite did not believe that Israel’s true King could suffer and die. In their minds, a Messiah should fight and win. They can’t imagine a king that doesn’t wield death. And they don’t understand that their greatest threat isn’t Rome, but death itself. Unwilling to accept a King who embraces death and suffering, they’re forced to oppose and reject him.

Palm Sunday is good news because Jesus announces that he has come to dethrone and disarm the empires of this world through his death. We can either embrace the rival Kingship of Jesus or we can align ourselves with the powers that be. We can accept Jesus’ coming death as the way to new life or fight to keep our lives as we know them. We can either pledge allegiance to Jesus’ Kingdom or join the religious establishment and reject him.

So I pray that on this Palm Sunday you will accept Jesus as the King who died and was raised to show that death and the empires that wield it are defeated.

Scripture Reading: Psalms 69, Isaiah 56:1-8, Jeremiah 7:1-11, Mark 11:12-25

1600 years ago Christians began calling the last days of Jesus’ life “Holy Week.” Today is Holy Monday. Holy Monday remembers the day Jesus came into Jerusalem’s temple with a homemade whip in his hand (John 2:15).

The temple was supposed to be a place where pilgrims from all over the world could come and offer sacrifices and receive forgiveness from God. But the religious establishment had decided that the temple courtyard, a space normally reserved for non-Jews to worship God, should also double as a livestock market for sacrificial animals. This guaranteed tighter control and higher profits for the Jewish elite who controlled the markets, but at the expense of the ability for non-Jewish pilgrims to have a place to worship. Instead of prayers in languages from around the world, the temple was filled with the braying of animals, the haggling of vendors, and the stench of manure. The worship of the nations was sacrificed so that some could line their pockets. Angry, Jesus flips over tables and prevents merchants from moving through the courtyard in a direct challenge to the priorities of Jerusalem’s religious establishment (Mark 11:15-16).

With a captive audience Jesus then quotes from the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah and says: ‘Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers’ (Mark 11:17). The crowd sees the truth in what Jesus is saying. Israel’s religious establishment has marginalized the worship of non-Jews for money. The temple was meant to be a place for all people to experience God’s presence and forgiveness, and that is being stolen from them. Publicly exposed and cornered, the religious elite plot to kill Jesus (Mark 11:18).

But Jesus isn’t just a prophet exposing corruption. Jesus is acting with authority. He calls the temple ‘my house.’ Part of the reason Jesus takes such dramatic action is because he is God, and God has the right to change, critique, and even tear down his temple if he wants to (John 2:18-22).

Holy Monday is good news because Jesus announces he has come to restore God’s temple to its original purpose. The temple was supposed to be a place where all people could make sacrifices and receive forgiveness. So on Holy Monday Jesus’ actions prove he will end a temple regime committed to greed and ethnic pride so that a better temple can rise to never exclude the nations again. And Jesus himself is this renewed temple. His body is our temple. He is where forgiveness is offered to all people. And in him there is no room for merchants or money because his forgiveness is free.

But when Jesus stops the buying and selling of sacrificial animals, he isn’t just dooming a corrupt system; he’s also offering himself as an alternative sacrifice. Turning over the tables is also Jesus’ way of saying that he is willing to be the sacrifice that grants all nations the forgiveness of God.

So I pray that on this Holy Monday you will accept Jesus as your new temple and as the free sacrifice that grants God’s forgiveness to people from all nations.

Scripture Reading: Psalms 12, Micah 7:1-7, Matthew 21:18-22

1600 years ago Christians began calling the last days of Jesus’ life “Holy Week.” Today is Holy Tuesday. Holy Tuesday remembers the day Jesus curses a fig tree and it withers down to the root.

Israel, and in particular her priests and temple, were God’s intended plan to extend his love and blessing to all nations. But the priests of Jesus’ day made it impossible for foreigners to worship God (Matthew 21:13). The faith of the religious elite had departed from its original purpose and was now a dead religion. Yesterday we remembered how Jesus, with a whip in hand, challenged the religious establishment of Israel.

Like Jesus, the prophets of the Hebrew Bible often spoke against Israel’s priests and their leadership of the temple. Many, like the prophet Micah, described them as diseased trees that from a distance looked healthy, but close up were rotten and infertile (Micah 7:1-7). So the next morning, when Jesus sees a fig tree with no fruit on it, he curses it and it withers (Matthew 21:19). It’s a prophetic symbol to his disciples that the current leadership of Israel’s temple has forgotten its purpose. It is corrupt, dead, and must be destroyed.

The disciples miss the symbolism and only ask how the fig tree withered so quickly. Jesus replies, ‘Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done’ (Matthew 21:21).

But Jesus isn’t explaining how the disciples can go and curse their own fig tree or throw their problems into the ocean. He’s telling them how the religious establishment of Israel will fall. When the disciples pray in faith, the mountain that the temple is built on will crumble. Through the disciples’ faith, Israel’s corrupt leadership will fall. Jesus has come to cleanse the temple of its dead religion, and Jesus expects his disciples to share that responsibility. They are part of his rebellion against the corrupt religious status quo.

In the verses following today’s passage, the religious leaders question what right Jesus has to claim the end of their temple system (Matthew 21:23). Jesus responds over and over again with stories and parables that reveal their corruption (Matthew 21:33-46). And then, like the prophets before him, Jesus predicts the destruction of Israel’s temple by an invading army (Matthew 24:1-2). The religious leaders of Israel can’t take it any more and continue their schemes to kill Jesus (Matthew 26:3-4).

Holy Tuesday is good news because Jesus announces the end of a corrupt religious order and the dawning of a new global people of God. And more than that, he invites us to join him in both rejecting dead religion and creating a new and indestructible Church. And Jesus says the way we both do battle and build is through prayer.

When we ask God, in faith, to tear down dead religion, he will. And when we ask God to build in its place a global Church that cannot be destroyed, he will do that too. And God guarantees these prayers will be answered in Jesus’ death and resurrection. Because Jesus dies, we know that all dead religion will one day be judged for its failures. But because Jesus rose from the dead, we know that in its place Jesus is making a new temple, called the Church, that can never be destroyed, not even by death.

So I pray that on this Holy Tuesday you will accept that Jesus is creating a new religious order in us. And that by faith we can join Jesus in building a Church that death, corruption, or the schemes of men will never destroy.

Scripture Reading: Psalms 55, Zechariah 11:4-17, John 12:1-10, Matthew 26:6-16

1600 years ago Christians began calling the last days of Jesus’ life “Holy Week.” Today is Holy Wednesday. Holy Wednesday remembers the day when both faithful Mary and treacherous Judas prepare Jesus to die.

After an increasingly public string of challenges to both Rome and the temple system, the religious elite believe that Jesus is a threat to their kingdom and religion (John 11:48). If Jesus is not killed, they believe Rome will come, take what little power they have left, and destroy their temple (John 11:50; Matthew 26:3-4). Believing it’s better for one man to die than for a whole nation to be lost, the religious elite make their final plans to kill Jesus.

Meanwhile, a woman named Mary takes a jar of perfume valued at 300 pieces of silver (or a year’s salary), cracks it open, pours it over Jesus’ head and feet, and rubs it into his skin with her hair (John 12:3). It’s not only lavish but socially awkward and humiliating. Horrified, Judas speaks up for the disciples. He calls Mary’s display wasteful and argues the perfume should have been sold and spent on the poor (John 12:4-5; Matthew 26:8-9). But Jesus quiets Judas and tells the disciples Mary is doing the right thing. He says: ‘You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me’ (Matthew 26:11).

Jesus isn’t dismissing care for the poor with this statement, he’s highlighting the value of what he has come to do. Like the religious elite have said, the only way to save God’s people is if he is killed. Mary understands that Jesus must die, so she embalms him in advance. To her, it’s no ‘waste’ to offer her most precious possession if it prepares Jesus for the burial that will save God’s people (Matthew 26:12). But Judas realizes Jesus is no longer useful to him. So he sneaks away and tells the religious elite he will betray Jesus for a tenth of what Mary poured out (Matthew 26:14-15).

Strangely, everyone in this story is preparing for Jesus to die. The religious elite offer a bribe to more easily capture Jesus. Judas betrays Jesus for another month’s expenses. And Mary prepares him to be laid in a tomb. Even more strangely, everybody believes Jesus must die in order to save them. Judas thought Jesus’ death would save his financial status. The religious elite thought Jesus’ death would prevent Rome from breathing more heavily down their necks.

But Holy Wednesday is good news because Jesus announces that his death will save God’s people not from Rome or poverty, but from death itself (John 11:51-52). Mary had just seen Jesus raise her brother from the dead (John 11:43-44). She hopes that if Jesus dies, then all God’s people can be saved from death. Jesus is worth her most precious possession because Jesus has the power to give eternal life to all who ask.

So I pray that on this Holy Wednesday you will accept that Jesus must die in order to save his people from death forever.

Scripture Reading: Psalms 116, Jeremiah 11, Luke 22:7-65

1600 years ago Christians began calling the last days of Jesus’ life “Holy Week.” Today is Maundy Thursday. ‘Maundy’ comes from a Latin word that means “covenant.” Maundy Thursday remembers the day Jesus shared a final meal with his disciples and gave them a new covenant.

So far, each of Jesus’ final days has made it increasingly clear that he intends to tear down the current religious order and inaugurate a new Kingdom. The religious establishment has been looking for a way to kill Jesus for this message, and Judas, one of Jesus’ own disciples, has just volunteered to betray his teacher (Luke 22:4-6). And on the first day of Passover, Judas decides to betray Jesus with a kiss.

Passover was a Jewish feast that reenacted how God rescued his people out of slavery in Egypt. God promised that if his people sacrificed a lamb, painted its blood above and around their doors, and then ate the slaughtered lamb with flatbread, he would free them (Exodus 12:1-10). God made good on this covenant when, after the meal, an angel came and killed the firstborn sons of Pharaoh and anyone else who defied God’s plans to free his people. But after the death of the firstborn, God’s people were freed from Egyptian power and soon became their own kingdom.

Jesus tells his disciples to make preparations to celebrate this day (Luke 22:7-13). But while eating the lamb and bread and drinking some wine, Jesus redirects the meaning of those symbols. According to Jesus, they don’t just look back to a past act of salvation but forward to a new one. Jesus took the bread and said, ”This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you” (Luke 22:19-20). God’s covenant on the first Passover promised freedom and a Kingdom on the other side of a sacrificed lamb and a dead firstborn. And at the same meal Jesus makes a new covenant and promises that by the sacrificed body and blood of God’s firstborn, God’s people will be freed once again. But first they must accept, eat, and drink his body and blood.

A lot happens after this moment. Judas leaves dinner to betray Jesus. The disciples argue about who is the best leader. Jesus goes to a nearby garden to pray and briefly asks God to take away the responsibility of being the bloody cup he has just offered. Judas returns with a mob that drags Jesus to a Jewish court. The disciples scatter. Peter, the head disciple, denies he even knows his Master. Then the religious establishment condemns Jesus as a heretic and beats him until the sun rises.

But Maundy Thursday is good news because Jesus announces that the darkness and disappointment of these final hours will lead to freedom and a Kingdom. Just as bread cannot be eaten until it’s broken and wine cannot be drunk unless it’s poured, a covenant cannot be made without blood. As we’ve said before, ‘Maundy’ comes from a Latin word that means covenant. And on this day Jesus promises that he will bear the cost for our covenant of freedom. Just as Israel was freed from slavery by the blood of a lamb, we are freed from slavery by Jesus’ blood. He is the firstborn son who was lost so that we are no longer captive to this world’s powers, temptations, sins, and consequences. Because of Maundy Thursday we are free citizens of Jesus’ new eternal Kingdom.

So I pray that on this Maundy Thursday you will accept Jesus’ body and blood as a new covenant – God’s promise to free you and bring you into his Kingdom.

Scripture Reading: Psalms 22, Isaiah 53, Mark 15

1600 years ago Christians began calling the last days of Jesus’ life “Holy Week.” Today is Good Friday. Good Friday remembers the day Jesus was condemned by Pilate, crucified on a cross, and buried in a tomb.

The Jewish court system has found Jesus guilty of blasphemy and deserving of death (Mark 14:63-64). But Rome had different standards for what deserved the death penalty, and only they could execute criminals (John 18:31). So the chief priests drag Jesus before Pilate and claim that he’s a tax evader and insurrectionist who calls himself the ‘King of the Jews’ (Luke 23:1-2). Jesus never said this, but he doesn’t deny the title either. He simply adds that his Kingdom is not an earthly one (John 18:36-37). But Pilate clearly sees the religious leaders are making up crimes to seem like friends of Rome while forcing Pilate to do their dirty work. To expose their hypocrisy, Pilate tells them he will release one of two men: either the innocent Jesus or an actual insurrectionist and threat to Rome (Mark 15:7-10). Their choice will prove their true motives. Predictably, they choose to release the rebel. The religious leaders don’t care about Rome, they just want Jesus dead.

When asked what should happen to Jesus, they convince a growing mob to chant, ‘Crucify him!’ (Mark 15:13). Jesus is immediately flogged and carted off by a troop of soldiers to be tortured. Mocking his claim to kingship, they dress him in a purple robe, ram a crown of thorns on his head, and mockingly bow to this king. They then hammer his sentence to the top of a cross before nailing his wrists and ankles to the beams: ‘This is Jesus, King of the Jews’ (Mark 15:26). The cross is raised into place and for hours Jesus hangs, bleeds, and suffers.

Before he dies Jesus asks God to forgive his tormentors. He promises a guilty man crucified next to him that he will see him in heaven soon. Jesus then dies. But at that exact moment, a curtain in the Jewish temple is torn in two (Mark 15:38). Symbolically, that curtain blocked access to God’s presence. But once a year the chief priest would go behind that curtain and sprinkle some blood on a box called the mercy seat. And in response God would show mercy and forgive the sins of the high priest and God’s people regardless of what they had done wrong.

The prophet Isaiah predicted that one day God would send someone who would be rejected by Israel’s leadership, condemned by his fellow citizens, and abandoned by his closest followers. That person was Jesus. Isaiah, thinking of Israel’s many sins and failures, says that Jesus ”was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).

Like a good king, Jesus took responsibility for the failures of his subjects. He was pierced, crushed, punished, and sacrificed for the sins, failures, and cruelties of his guilty citizens. And since Jesus was willing to be their sacrifice, there is no longer a curtain between the guilty and God’s mercy. Nothing blocks access to God’s presence for anyone anymore.

Good Friday is good news because Jesus’ death announces that there is forgiveness for all sins. His blood pulls back the curtain of God’s mercy and now all people can be forgiven and saved from a death that would otherwise be deserved.

So I pray that on this Good Friday you would accept Jesus’ death in your place. Only through him will you have access to God’s mercy and only by his blood do we escape the death we deserve.

Scripture Reading: Psalms 16, Ezekiel 37:1-14, Acts of the Apostles 2:14-40

1600 years ago Christians began calling the last days of Jesus’ life “Holy Week.” Today is Holy Saturday. Holy Saturday remembers the day Jesus rested in his tomb. We know relatively little about what happened during the day Jesus lay buried in his tomb.

We know that it was a Sabbath day, a day of rest for faithful Jews. And we know that the religious leaders were afraid. Jesus had claimed he would rise from the dead on the third day (Matthew 27:62-63). They were worried Jesus’ disciples might try to steal his body and pretend he rose from the dead, making their problems worse. So they asked the Roman governor to post guards at Jesus’ tomb to prevent any false resurrections (Matthew 27:64-65). Not much else is known about what happened on this particular Saturday.

And that might be part of this day’s significance. Jesus is dead because nothing is supposed to happen. There are no more miracles to be done, no more Jewish laws to fulfill, no more sin to atone for, and no more powers to fight. On the cross Jesus said, ‘It is finished’ (John 19:30). Everything Jesus came to do, he did. So with nothing left to accomplish, Jesus rested. At the very least, this means we can rest too. If Jesus rested knowing there was nothing left to do in order to save his people, we can rest knowing that Jesus has done everything to make us his people.

One of Jesus’ ancestors, King David, wrote: ‘…my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest in hope, because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, you will not let your faithful one see decay’ (Psalm 16:9-10). God had once promised David that his dynasty would last forever, and even after he rested in death, God would raise one of his sons to rule God’s people forever (2 Samuel 7:12-13). David was confident that God would preserve, protect, and provide for his dynasty even through and beyond death. He knew that his death would not be the end of his dynasty or God’s promises.

Holy Saturday is a day of mourning, but not a day without hope. Jesus’ day in the tomb reminds us that we will all know death. We will watch the death of our loved ones. Eventually, we will all fall asleep one last time. But Holy Saturday is good news because Jesus announces that death is never more than a nap. In Jesus, death is a day of rest before the dawn of a new creation and a much needed break before a new era of renewed and resurrection life.

So I pray that on this Holy Saturday you would accept that Jesus’ death proves the depths of God’s promises. There is nothing you can do to add to them because God can resurrect us even from our graves.

Scripture Reading: Psalms 118, Hosea 6:1-3, Mark 16:1-8

1600 years ago Christians began calling the last days of Jesus’ life “Holy Week.” Today is Resurrection Sunday. Easter Sunday remembers the day Jesus was raised from the dead.

After being executed as a threat to Roman and Jewish power, Jesus laid in his grave for two full nights. For two full nights Jesus’ disciples, followers, and family wept. For two full nights the schemes of Rome, corrupt religion, and darkness seemed to have won…until there was an earthquake. And an angel dressed in white appeared, rolled back the stone covering Jesus’ tomb, and scared the guards away (Matthew 28:2-3).

At sunrise, a group of women approach Jesus’ tomb to embalm his body (Mark 16:1-2). But as they approach, they see that Jesus’ tomb has been opened (Mark 16:4). And inside the tomb is an angel dressed in white. He tells them, ‘Don’t be alarmed…You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him’ (Mark 16:6). The angel then tells these women to leave the cemetery and tell Jesus’ disciples what they have seen: Jesus is alive!

But before they could get far, Jesus appears and they immediately bow before their King (Matthew 28:8-9). With his grave behind him, Jesus is now the King of both Life and Death. And he remains the only person in human history to have risen from the dead, never to die again. Later, Jesus tells his disciples that he has been given all authority in heaven and on earth and that he is with them (Matthew 28:18). He then sends them out to make new disciples and citizens of his Kingdom, just before he ascends into the clouds and takes his throne at God’s right hand (Luke 24:51-52).

Holy Week doesn’t simply remember the final week of Jesus’ life, but the days leading to Jesus’ coronation and enthronement. On Palm Sunday Jesus rode into Jerusalem like a rival king. He challenged the power structure of the temple on Monday and invited others into his rebellion on Tuesday. On Wednesday Jesus was anointed with perfumed oil, like his forefather King David. Like a monarch, on Thursday he announced a New Covenant treaty with God. And on Friday Jesus was killed as ‘King of Jews’ in a battle with death. But Resurrection Sunday is good news because it is the day Jesus is raised from the dead and is enthroned over all other nations, powers, and rulers. Jesus is the true King of the world, life, and death, just as he claimed to be.

When people came into contact with the resurrected Jesus, almost everyone responded the same way – they were all terrified. The soldiers guarding the tomb fell down as if dead. The women at the tomb cowered. Jesus needed to tell his own disciples not to be alarmed. The religious elite didn’t even believe Jesus rose from the dead, but were still scared that others believed it! And in one sense, this is the most appropriate response to a King who can wrestle death and win. But another response to Jesus’ enthronement is to run and tell others that good news.

So I pray that on this Easter Sunday you will accept the good news that Jesus has risen from the dead as the world’s only resurrected King and run to tell others the good news as well.