“Holy Week:” Scripture for Meditation
Author: Bobby Valentine | Filed under: Christian hope, Discipleship, Easter, Grace, Jesus, Journey, Lent
The coming week is traditionally known as “Holy Week.” The phrase dates to at least Athanasius, an African Christian leader in Alexandria Egypt and Epiphanius, a Christian leader in Palestine both lived in the AD 300s. From its earliest days, the church used a calendar to teach the story of redemption. The vast majority of people could neither read, nor afford reading materials like a scroll or book and thus did not own a Bible. In fact it would be nearly 1500 years before average disciples could own a bound Bible. The calendar was essential.
Days of the year would be associated with events in the story of redemption like the Exodus, the birth/incarnation of the King, the death and resurrection of the King. Since the first century believers celebrated what they called “Pascha” (means “passover”) which we call in our language, Easter.
The week leading up to Easter people would gather to hear Scripture read out loud, The passages read told the story of the Messiah and what lead to his death. The culmination was “Easter” (called “Pascha”). The readings for this week are as follows.
Monday: Isa 42.1-9; Ps 36; Heb 9.11-15; John 12.1-11
Tuesday: Isa 49.1-7; Ps 71; 1 Cor 1.18-31; John 12.20-36
Wednesday: Isa 50.4-9; Ps 70; Heb 12.1-3; John 13.21-32
Thursday: Ex 12.1-14; Ps 116; 1 Cor 11.17-34; John 13.1-17, 31-35
Friday: Isa 52.13-53.12; Ps 22; Heb 10.16-25; John 18.1-19, 42
Saturday: Lamentations 3.1-9, 19-24; Ps 31; 1 Pt 4.1-8; John 19.38-42
Print this out or write down the passages for the day. I pray you will walk with Jesus through the week that changed human history for eternity.
Shalom.
Leave a Reply