What Is Holy Week?

Jim Ladd

This is the biggest and most important week of 2020. Not because it will be the week of our next Pearl Harbor, in our battle with the COVID-19 pandemic. Not because our hearts will be saddened with more people infected and more lives lost. Not because of “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” or social distancing, or more rules about buying groceries and pharmacy items.

No, the week will matter because of something far bigger than anything that will trend on social media or news channels. The week will matter because it is Holy Week.

Or, at least, it should matter.

We live in a world of fast paces, streaming entertainment services, and very little reflection. We seldom deeply contemplate or carefully articulate the deeper matters of God, life, self, the soul, community, or meaning. We spend far too little time being and almost all of our time doing. Consequently, the significance of sacred days and times has been lost on us. Times when we soak in the eternal, rest in Shalom, and sense the connection between the heavens and the earth.

This is why taking time to mark Holy Week matters so much.

Here is your simple guide to Holy Week - a week designed to focus our attention on the “passion,” or suffering, of Christ, and the victory completed through that suffering. It began this past weekend with Palm Sunday, and then includes Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday.

Palm Sunday is the beginning of Holy Week as we remember the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem and the events of that day. Jesus fulfilled at least 55 Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah, and four of them that day alone.

Maundy Thursday denotes when Jesus washed the disciples’ feet during what is known as the Last Supper on the night He was betrayed. The word Maundy is built off of the Latin word for “command.” When Jesus washed their feet, He said: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another” (John 13:34, NIV). This is why some churches host a feet-washing ceremony or service on Maundy Thursday.

Good Friday is the day we mark the anniversary of when Jesus was crucified. I struggle, too, with calling that day, “good,” but man was it ever a great thing! Our sin is ugly and the suffering of Jesus is unbearable to imagine. But what Jesus accomplished for us, through his sacrificial and obedient death, is staggeringly good. He took our sins and nailed them to the cross, along with the condemnation we deserve, so that we can be truly free and enjoy a right and defining relationship with our Heavenly Father.

Holy Saturday, the day before Easter Sunday, marks the time of Jesus in the tomb. We get a hint about this day from Peter’s description of Jesus descending into the depths of hell. It was at the very least a victory lap, and, in my view, much, much, more as Jesus proclaimed victory to the captives who had lived before the incarnation and the cross.

And then, of course, comes Easter Sunday when we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus—an event that proves the divine Person of Jesus and seals not only His victory, but also our future. Without His resurrection our faith is meaningless and we are without hope.

Each day is rich with meaning, significance and spiritual power.

Welcome to Holy Week, the most important news you will digest all week.