18 Mar Holy Week Devotional

Welcome to Holy Week, the week in which the Church follows in the footsteps of Jesus’s suffering and death. In his progress through betrayal, arrest and false accusation, unjust trial and wrongful sentence, mockery, violent degradation, victimisation, and agonising death, the Messiah suffers the worst of our life at the hands of his fellow human beings, drawing out the poison of our rebellion against God. As he does so, he opens up for all who follow him a pathway of unbroken trust in the one he called “Abba.”

From the earliest centuries of Christianity, Jesus’s followers have remembered and retraced the steps of Holy Week. As we do so, we allow our lives—with all that entails—to be reframed by Jesus’s life, the crucified Messiah Paul declares is the wisdom and power of God. When we’re stuck in a mundane groove, our declaration at the end of Holy Week of Christ’s victory over death can come all too easy and leaves us all too soon: we do not allow it to illuminate here and now. But, if we suffer ourselves to linger in the events of Holy Week, we will better open our lives to the truth of Easter Day—so incredible, so incandescent, and so utterly life filled.

With this lingering in mind, we’ve prepared a simple structure for our readings this week. Each day begins with a psalm, followed by a moment from the story of Jesus’s final days. There’s no reflection, no question to ponder, and no collect; most days, there is simply an opening psalm and gospel reading. On Easter Saturday, there is only a psalm. On Easter Day, we gather again at the conclusion of our Lenten pilgrimage to read, reflect, and to respond in thanksgiving and praise. So now, in an undistracted and unhurried way, come linger on the path of Holy Week.

You can choose to click on any one of these images and print the set of PDF cards. Alternatively, you can sign up here to receive each day’s devotion in your inbox.

(Images: CC Venn Foundation 2021)