Holy Week Devotional

I was incredibly angry at God for many years because He allowed my siblings and mother to die in spite of my family's faithfulness to Him and the incredible amount of prayer that people offered for my family. I couldn’t understand it. Why would God allow that? That’s a question I have wrestled with for most of my life. While this was originally something that kept me far from God, the more I hones...

Holy Saturday is an invitation to stillness, contemplation, and anticipation. On this day, the tomb would still be inhabited—Jesus’ body lying there, broken for us. All the momentum the disciples felt as they were celebrating Jesus coming to be crowned King just days ago came to an abrupt halt—forced stillness. This was a day of sorrow for the Apostles, as they felt their plans and hopes were dash...

It was on Golgotha, the place of the skull, that Jesus was crucified. But before His hands and feet were nailed to the cross, He endured unimaginable pain. For hours leading up to the cross and for six long hours nailed on it, Jesus endured shame and suffering in every imaginable way. Yet through His agony, Jesus exemplified His love for humanity, willingly enduring the cross to save a world of lo...

Barabbas’ story points to the idea that the gospel is about a righteous Savior dying for guilty sinners—setting them free. Barabbas was a rebel and murderer. He was probably the next in line to be nailed to a cross, but because of a tradition related to the Passover festival, he was set free instead. ...

As I read through the text, I found myself looking for the emotions of those involved. When you search for the emotions, you question the hows, the whys, and the whats. How could Judas betray Jesus? Why did the disciples not understand what was going to happen to Jesus? What emotions did Jesus go through as He spent His last moments with His disciples, eating together, praying together, and ultima...

We are commanded to love God with every piece of us—our hearts, our souls, and our minds. However, Jesus also commanded us to love our neighbors as ourselves. If we are to love our neighbors as ourselves, we aren't going to go to our neighbors and say the unloving things we say to ourselves. We must begin by loving ourselves just as Jesus loves us. ...

During the last week of Jesus’ life, He returned to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. When He entered the temple complex, Jesus expected to see people praying, praising, and thanking God. Instead, He witnessed money changers and merchants exploiting and overcharging the people. And, because they set up shop in the Court of Gentiles, they made it useless as a place of prayer and worship for the ...

Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice to save the world. It was the hardest thing that He had to do and something He didn’t necessarily want to do, but He obeyed His Father. He took on the sins of the world by dying on a cross for every one of us....