Consider the significance of Holy Week – 2 April – 8 April 2023.

Most Christians across the globe refer to the week that begins with Palm Sunday and ends with Easter Sunday, as “Holy Week”. We follow Jesus from his triumphal entry on Palm Sunday, to his cross, death and burial and his glorious resurrection on Easter Sunday.

 

Resurrection (Easter) Sunday is the high light of our festivities and is the wonderful celebration of the resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

 

Because “holy” means that something is set apart for God, Holy Week can only belong to the celebration of our God and his Christ by remembering the central truth of the gospel that only Jesus Christ, the Son of God, saves us from our sins by his atoning death and victorious resurrection.

 

Palm Sunday commemorates the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem on the Sunday before his arrest. The entry is mentioned in all four Gospels, which indicates the significance ascribed to it in the church during the times when the Gospels were written. (Mark 11:1–11, Matthew 21:1–11, Luke 19:28–44, and John 12:12–19).

 

What is the Tenebrae service about? Tenebrae describes the darkness of the night when Jesus experienced the anguish and fear of Gethsemane, was arrested and tried by the Jewish religious leaders and the Roman political authorities. It was the night when he was betrayed by Judas and denied by Peter. We remember the suffering of Christ by the gradual extinguishing of candles and Scripture readings on the significance of the Passion of Christ. How can we ever truly see his love, if not within the context of the severity of his sacrifice?

 

Good Friday is a solemn day of remembrance, because both the sins of the world and our personal sin caused the punishment, death and suffering of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Good Friday is a somber commemoration, but it is not without its own joy, for while we want to contrast the joy of Resurrection to the solemn sadness of Good Friday, the gravity of Good Friday is a prophecy of the hope of Resurrection Sunday. We always observe Good Friday, well knowing that Sunday is coming!

 

Resurrection (Easter) Sunday speaks of the glorious crown of all Christian worship that inspires every Sunday worship service of the year, where we are equipped to live for the glory of God every day of our lives, until the end. You could call it “the most important Sunday of the year”. We should all call it the most inspiring Sunday Worship one can celebrate!

Resurrection Sunday, and therefore every Sunday, is a feast of worship, praise and respect, because Jesus triumphed over death and all our enemies.

 

Pray during these days that:

o   Our love for Jesus will be enthused and that God and worshipping him will be the priority of every Christian in the world – far beyond anything else we could plan for or do.

o   After we commemorated these blessed days, our lives will show the love and mercy of God in the work of Jesus Christ celebrated and remembered.

 

Matthew 26: 40 and 41: In Gethsemane Jesus returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

 

Let’s make keeping watch with Jesus a daily experience.