The Blessing of Taking a Closer Look at Holy Week

I love Holy Week. And, somehow I think I love it more because I didn’t grow up in church. Until I became a Christian at sixteen, Easter was simply the fun of a new dress, searching for my basket, and gathering eggs at my grandmother’s house. Then after, Easter became a precious celebration. I do so appreciate the memories of those early days.

Years later when I got married, I had the additional privilege of getting to know Easter not just as Resurrection Sunday, but also as a week full of celebrations per my husband’s Lutheran upbringing. Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, they were all new to me. It was neat to add those extra days of understanding, sweetening the crescendo up to a victorious Easter celebration.

In that same spirit of expanding the experience of Easter, this year I decided to investigate the remaining days of Holy Week. Not surprisingly, there are many things that happened on those less “famous” days of Holy Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday. As a light appetizer, I’ll offer just a little here. Scholars suggest on Monday, Jesus cleared the temple. On Tuesday, He visited the Mount of Olives where he would be betrayed later that week. Wednesday (also referred to as “Spy Wednesday”) is suggested as the day Judas made the decision to betray Jesus. And, finally Saturday, (sometimes referred to as “Black Saturday”) when Jesus lay in the tomb.

And, while I definitely considered using today’s post as a deep dive into each of these less well known days, a different lesson came to mind instead. Recognizing these more obscure days in Jesus’ last week on earth is a simple reminder that there is so much to learn about Him “in between the highlight reel.” By looking closer, we learn more about this important week and other experiences He lived. And, by looking closer, we get not only the Sunday School level of Jesus, but a birds eye view to some of the finer nuances of His character. Just like when we spend time getting to know people better, when we take the time to know God better, it helps us love, appreciate, and understand Him even more.

During this Holy Week, I pray that you are blessed by learning more about who Jesus was over that time. And, I pray that practice also encourages you to learn and develop deep, meaningful relationships with others as well. I sure do love it that any lesson we learn about Jesus also has this cool, blessed application for our daily lives too.

Holy Week happened a long, long time ago but its implications are as modern day as they come. Blessings to each of you as the victory of Easter Sunday approaches. May you deeply know Him — and be deeply known. For this is where life is truly lived.

(For those interested in a deeper dive, a thorough infographic on Holy Week events can be found here.)

Photo by Bruno van der Kraan on Unsplash, used with permission