Hi my friends~ A blessed Holy Week / Passion Week to you. This is such a special week for those who have trusted their lives in the Saving Power of Jesus Christ. This is the week, so many years ago, that our sins were covered and that the barrier between God and man was forever broken. This is the week that culminated the purpose of Jesus Christ walking upon this earth as both 100% God and 100% man. This is the week that will forever change the lives of any who accept the Gift of Jesus’ paying the debt price for the sins that separate us from the Father. This is the week that is Holy, because Holy Jesus traded His Purity for our filth, and we are washed clean. Holy Week. Passion Week. Oh, may we be somberly grateful for His Passion for us, so that we could be made holy…
Those who know Jesus know that Easter is so much more than new dresses, a big family dinner, and sweet family traditions. If you are looking for a way to bring the reality of Jesus’ Easter Gift to your heart and your home, I have a few links to pass along.
During this time every year, I love to research and piece together the puzzle of exactly what Jesus did, where He went, and what He said during this last week of His life before the cross. Scholars have debated for centuries on the exact placement of each activity and word because each of the four Gospel writers, all inspired by the Holy Spirit, wrote from different perspectives and toward different audiences. Not every word and action is recorded in all four gospel accounts. However, we can be 100% sure that all four accounts are correct, even if we humans have a hard time making them fit to our exact liking.
This year I was so excited to find some timelines and sites that do a thorough job of piecing together the events of this Passion Week. Though, even these sites disagree on the events of Wednesday. WHEN something happened isn’t nearly as important as THAT it did happen… and that’s what I want to set my heart upon as I read about and study Jesus this week.
If you are looking for a good family devotion idea, you could take each day of this week and read what Jesus said/did during the corresponding day of His last week before the cross. For older children or youth, you could print the chart and have them choose something to read from each day, then talk about it each evening as a family. However you use this information, I pray that the Lord will use it in your life as you gratefully anticipate Resurrection Sunday ~ The Day all of us came Alive in Jesus Christ!
1. This site is an excellent site to use with children and youth. It has links to age appropriate stories and picture books to be read to or by children. I’m not sure that the books can be downloaded, but they could definitely be opened on a tablet and read as an electronic book.
2. This is a concise chart that pieces together a chronological timeline of the week. I especially like this chart because it helps us distinguish between what we call a “day” in these modern times and what consisted of a “day” in Jesus’ time. (In fact, this whole site is wonderful!)
3. This links to a PDF with details and teachings added to the chronological timeline of Passion Week.
4. *** This is a link to a four-internet-page and 52 printed-page teaching on Holy Week. Not only does it chart each activity and word of Jesus for every day, but it goes into wonderful detail about how each of these words and actions link back to the Old Testament, and it explains many of, what we would call, “little things” Jesus did. Though I know that Jesus’ walk toward the cross was in fulfillment of numerous OT prophesies, I was blown away by how almost everything Jesus did – even how He looked and observed things – pointed back to the Old Testament, and was for a specific reason. (Of course… why should that shock me? Everything Jesus did was for a purpose… I guess I just didn’t realize it in the details until I read this document.)
***I do have to make a disclaimer about this site and the document’s writer. I did a brief research on him before I linked it here, and though the information about this last week of Jesus doctrinally lines up with the infallible Word of God, I can not say that everything he believes is doctrinally sound. So the only thing from this site and author that I am condoning is this four-page-internet document.
I pray that these resources spur your heart and household to seek and find Jesus as you walk with Him into Easter Sunday.
PS: I know this is late posting. You wouldn’t believe all of the trouble I’ve had with this post… 😉
Jennifer
