Holy Week

Taken from a WayForward devotional in 2025.

In Christianity, we celebrate Easter during the time of the Jewish Passover and these 2 events are not mutually exclusive. On the contrary, they are intertwined and simultaneous. With Lent drawing to a close Christians are now looking to the Cross of Holy Week.

Holy Week is 8 days that allow Christians a focused opportunity to remember, lament, anticipate, and celebrate the sacrifice that Jesus made. This year, it will begin with Palm Sunday on April 13, the Sunday before Easter, commemorating the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. Holy Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday are days following Palm Sunday, often marked with quiet reflection and prayer. Maundy Thursday commemorates the Last Supper, where Jesus shared a meal with his disciples during the Passover. Good Friday is the day of mourning and remembrance of Jesus’ death by crucifixion while Easter Sunday is the celebration of His bodily resurrection and his triumph over sin, satan, and death.

While Jesus leads the Passover meal in the Gospel of Luke, He instructs His disciples to remember Him each time they eat it in the future (Luke 22:14–20). So every time we take Communion today, it’s actually rooted both in the Passover celebration of YHWH delivering his people out of Egyptian slavery and the Passion of Jesus forgiving and redeeming his people by the new covenant in his blood. And after Jesus predicts His betrayal and death at this Passover meal by one of those present with him (vv. 21–23) the disciples begin to argue who is the greatest.

But Jesus silences their arguments by saying: “But I am among you as the one who serves.” He redirects their self-centered ambition to humbly set the record straight. The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many and his followers where to imitate his service.

Holy Week shows us the one who serves. makers of Jesus in local community and be a disciple-making culture.