Experiencing Holy Week is to walk through Jesus’ most trying hours, contemplating the events that led to Easter.
Prayer at the cross: 3 hours (between 12 and 3pm) of silent prayer while Jesus was on the cross. Encourage your family to spend some time during this period, in prayer.
Read through Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion (John 18:28 to19:37)
“Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him” (Hebrews 5:8-9 NIV)
Read: • Isaiah 52:13-53:12 • Psalm 22
Reflect:
- Spend time today walking the road to Golgotha with Christ. Read today’s Gospel reading, imagining you are there witnessing Jesus’ final day and his death. Sit with those emotions, the grief, the emptiness of a world despite Christ.
- Consider a world without Christ. How does this make you feel? What would be missing from your life without Jesus?
- What must his followers have thought as he died, not knowing what the next days would bring? How would you have reacted?
- Knowing the rest of the story, how can you find hope in Good Friday?
Respond in Prayer: O Jesus, on this day we remember your death, the day your light went out from this earth. We sit in the darkness today, remembering the trials you faced on our behalf. You have borne our sin and made the ultimate sacrifice to save us. Today, as we recall your final hours, we consider a world without you and hold onto the hope we know we have in you. Lord, commit my heart ever closer to you, because I don’t want to live in a Good Friday world without you. I want you and your light in my life. I believe in you and want to follow you all the days of my life, even knowing the road ahead will be difficult. Come, Lord Jesus, come and fill this world with your light. Amen.
Rejoice in Jesus:
It gives me great pleasure to share this Good News on behalf of my home church in Claremont, Cape Town:
