A Family Guide to Holy Week Introduction

If Easter is the highest and holiest of days for Christians then we should celebrate it with a greater fervor and intensity than we do any other holiday. By doing this we will communicate to our children that we truly do believe that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the greatest and most important act which God has ever performed for mankind. Unfortunately our current practice for celebrating Easter causes our children to become confused and to draw the logical conclusion from our practices that Jesus’ resurrection is not as important as Easter bunnies, Easter eggs, and new clothes.

The greatest lesson which parents can teach their children is that Christ’s resurrection from the dead is the greatest demonstration of God’s power which the world has ever seen. If we honestly evaluate the current American church culture, however, we must honestly admit that Christmas and not Easter receives our greatest celebratory effort.  While I am all for Easter and Christmas being celebrated by Christians I do not think these two holidays should be celebrated alike. Easter is the greatest of commemorations for Christians.  Easter truly is a holy day, and should therefore be observed spiritually more than commercially.

Therefore in an effort to commemorate Easter I want to suggest that you reclaim and reinterpret the Christian tradition of Holy Week. In Christian tradition Holy Week is the week before Easter. It includes the religious holidays of Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. It commemorates the last week of the earthly life of Jesus Christ as recorded in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

During Holy Week Christians should focus on the Passion of Christ, His Death and Resurrection.  Easter Sunday, the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, should be the most holy of days for Christians.

I suggest that you use the this family Guide to Holy Week to conduct family devotions with your spouse and your children each of the eight days beginning on Palm Sunday and ending on Easter Sunday. If you are single then use these reading privately and personally or invite your friends or family to join you in having these devotions each day.

Begin by gathering in your family together and have a word of prayer.  You may pray yourself, ask for volunteers, or allow each member of your family to pray in turn. After you have prayed you may want to sing a song together or listen to some music. Then have each family member take their own Bible (if they have one) and read the biblical passages contained in each day’s devotional guide. Those who are not reading should follow along in their own Bible’s as the reader reads each text. You may wish to ask questions after each passage is read and spend time discussing them as time allows. After everyone has finished reading hold hands as a family and let each person in turn thank God for sending Jesus to die for their sins.

Take these suggestions and make them your own. Please make certain that you use this opportunity to tell your children, and your spouse in front of your children, how much you love them and thank God for blessing you with them. The time you spend together reading God’s word and praying together as a family will be blessed.

Satan, however, will do everything in his power to interrupt this family devotion time. Therefore, I suggest that you turn off the TV, unplug your telephone, turn off all cell phones, and computer monitors, place your pets in an area where they will not interrupt or draw the attention of your family away from this time of Bible reading and prayer. Do everything you can think of to limit interruptions. If you have to change the time from day-to-day to maximize participation by the whole family then do so!

The goal is that you and your family do something different and exceptional to demonstrate to your children that this holiday, Easter, is more important to you and your spouse than all of the other holidays. Also, after you have a family devotion for one week together, perhaps you will be able to continue to read God’s word and pray together as a family each and every day.

Read as many of the texts as you have time to do so, and allow your children to read also. Make each devotional text your own. The texts which I am providing are merely suggestions. Don’t be afraid to start, be brave and remember that Satan, and not God, gives us the spirit of fear.