Holy Week 2024
A collection of daily meditations to take us through Holy Week: 25th - 30th March.
Monday, 25th March
by Becky Harcourt
If My people, who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face……. 2 Chronicles 7:14
This verse from Chronicles is well known and often quoted, especially when things aren’t going well and we’re desperate for God’s intervention. It’s what God required of the people if He was to act on their behalf. God’s people must humble themselves and admit He is God.
They must give Him their full attention and ask for His perspective. They must stop ignoring the boundaries God has placed around them for how to live their lives. When they had done all this, He would know they were serious and not just using Him as a quick fix to get out of a tight spot with no intention of changing after He came to the rescue.
The temptation to use God as a quick fix is as strong today as ever. When we find ourselves in a tight spot or uncomfortable situation, we often want God to fix it for us with a minimum of effort on our part, but that’s not how it works.
As we seek and submit to God, He works in us from the inside out, changing us so we become more like Him in our character and outlook. That does not make for a quick fix, instead it is more a process of building something that will last. Building well always takes time and effort but you’re left with something solid and enduring rather than flimsy and short-lived.
Prayer: Father God, thank You for Your promise to hear us and act when we properly seek You. Amen.
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Tuesday, 26th March
by Revd. Toby Hole
God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him (Jesus) and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things....by making peace through His blood. Colossians 1:19-20
At the heart of Christmas is the incredible truth that the almighty creator of the universe came to us in frail humanity. As Graham Kendrick’s popular hymn describes it “Fullness of God in helpless babe”. In Jesus we don’t just see a fragment of God, or a watered down divinity. In Jesus we have the completeness of God but in a form that we could see and touch.
At the heart of Easter is the equally remarkable truth that Jesus, truly God and truly man, allowed Himself to suffer death on the cross in order that we sinful humans could be brought back into the loving embrace of our Father.
Put these two truths together and you get the kernel of the gospel. God became like us in order that we might be brought back to God. But in this verse Paul goes even beyond this. Through Christ’s death God intends to reconcile all things to himself. The whole cosmos with its pain, darkness and sin will be somehow brought back to God because of what Jesus did on the cross.
Perhaps this is the most astonishing truth of all: God has a plan of salvation for the entirety of creation. And that is something to celebrate every day of the year!
Almighty God, thank You that through Jesus’ death we can be reconciled to You. Amen
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Wednesday, 27th March
by Norma Murrain
Coventry Cathedral uses as its emblem the Coventry Passion Cross – three nails together forming the Cross of Christ. Here is my reflection on the Coventry Passion Cross; what does this design mean to you?
The first nail is the carpenter’s nail and focuses us on the Purpose of the nail. We are reminded that Jesus worked as a carpenter before entering His ministry. As He sat there in His carpenter’s workshop, smoothing and working the wood with love, did He contemplate the rugged cross on which He would one day be crucified?
As He hammered nails into wood, did He ever accidentally hammer one into his finger, and as He felt that pain, did He foresee the nails of his crucifixion? As He carried large logs to His workshop to make tables, chairs, and doors, did He contemplate the cross He would one day carry to Calvary?
The second nail is the nail of Passion. It represents the nails in Jesus’ hands and feet that He accepted because of His passionate love for us.
The third nail is the nail of Promise, like the promise He made to the dying thief on the cross. It was that if we believe in Him, then we will reign with Him in paradise. This is the nail that Christ offers to you and to me. Will you accept this nail as a sign of His passionate love, His forgiveness of your sin and promise of eternal life for all who will come to Him? If so, why not pray the following prayer this Eastertide?
Dear Lord Jesus, thank you that you have a plan and a purpose for my life. Thank you for your passionate love for me and thank you that your blood was shed for my sins, thank you for your promise of eternal life. As I think about that nail of promise, I receive your passion, your grace and your forgiveness, may I fulfil your plan and purpose for my life, In Jesus name, Amen.
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Maundy Thursday, 28th March
by Lester Amann
It was now the day before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. He had always loved those in the world who were his own, and he loved them to the very end. Jesus and his disciples were at supper. The Devil had already put into the heart of Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, the thought of betraying Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had given him complete power; he knew that he had come from God and was going to God. So he rose from the table, took off his outer garment, and tied a towel round his waist. Then he poured some water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and dry them with the towel round his waist. (John 13:1-5)
How do we say goodbye to someone who we have known for many years and enjoyed their company? We arrange a farewell party!
When Jesus prepared to leave, it was very different. He arranged His last meal and it was no party. His disciples were in for a shock. Jesus brought His friends together and then said one of them would betray Him! He then said Peter would deny Him.
Although Jesus was the host and should have been honoured, He changed His role and became a servant. He got up from the meal table, removed His outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around His waist. Jesus humbled Himself and washed the feet of His disciples, much to their dismay and Peter’s objection.
Jesus showed humility and bestowed honour onto the disciples. They were to do the same, to serve others. They were to learn, as we do, that in God’s service it will often be a humbling and sacrificial experience. Jesus said “I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for You” (John 13:15)
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Good Friday, 29th March
by Revd Canon Paul Hardingham
‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ (Psalm 22:1 & Matt 27:46).
Where is God? is a common question voiced today and shared by Jesus on the cross on the first Good Friday. This question is answered in the psalm, as we look through the lens of Jesus’ crucifixion.
It is a real question: Both David and Jesus question God about the pain and darkness of their experience. It is a real question for all suffer, yet they are still able to hold onto a God of love, who has their lives in His hands: ‘Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the one Israel praises.’ (3).
It requires faith to ask: Their complaint about the apparent absence of God is not a sign of losing faith in Him. David remembers those who have trusted God in the past and been saved from their troubles: ‘In you our ancestors put their trust; they trusted and You delivered them.’ (4). Just like Jesus on the cross, we are able to entrust ourselves ‘to Him who judges justly.’ (1 Peter 2:23).
It is answered in experience: When David cried out to God, he experienced his deliverance: ‘For He has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one; He has not hidden His face from him but has listened to his cry for help.’ (24). As a result, David was able to praise God and witness to His faithfulness.
The fulfilment of these verses are seen in Jesus’ resurrection, which we celebrate on Easter Sunday. He was vindicated by God and has become the source of life and hope for all who trust themselves to Him.
In answer to the question ‘Where is God?’, we hear the answer, ‘Look to the cross of Jesus!’
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Saturday, 30th March
by Revd. Canon Paul Hardingham
For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.’ John 3:16
This verse has been described as ‘the greatest verse in the Bible’, as it enables us to understand the events of Good Friday and Easter Day. The cross and resurrection reveal the depth of God’s love for each of us.
God’s love is unconditional: God demonstrated the extent of His love by sending His Son into this world, to show us what it looks like: ‘God with skin on’ ! God graciously loves us, as none of us deserves it. ‘There is nothing we can do to make God love us more. There is nothing we can do to make God love us less.’ (Philip Yancey).
God’s love is sacrificial: The cross is the supreme demonstration of God’s love, as Jesus identifies with a fallen, suffering world. He died for our sins, removing the barrier between us and God, giving access into God’s presence and release from the power of sin and death.
God’s love is accessible: Jesus’ resurrection makes His eternal life available to all who put their trust in Him. It’s an offer of life with purpose, in which we can know God personally, both now and for eternity.
Bobby Moore described receiving the World Cup from the Queen in 1966 as terrifying: ‘I noticed that the Queen was wearing some beautiful white gloves. I looked down at my hands and they were completely covered with mud’! Although we approach God with dirty and spoilt lives, by the cross and resurrection, we can shake hands with a holy God. He offers us ‘life in all its fullness’, with healing, forgiveness, peace and a fresh start in life!
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