Holy Week Overview
A concise journey through Christ’s path from Palm Sunday to the empty tomb, where His willing sacrifice and victorious resurrection reshape all of history.
On Palm Sunday, Jesus deliberately went to his death in Jerusalem. He could have called upon the countless armies of heaven to save Him, but He did not. Knowing full well what was ahead, He went willingly. Down the road used to bring the lambs for the Passover into Jerusalem, the Lamb of God went to the slaughter. Just as King David rode into the city on a donkey 1000 years earlier, Jesus chose a donkey as his mount. When the crowds acclaimed him Messiah, he received their greeting.
On Thursday evening, Jesus gathered with his disciples to celebrate the Passover. They remembered the night when the Angel of Death passed over the doors of the people of Israel, marked by the blood of the lamb. That night, when he gave us the Lord’s Supper, Jesus became our Passover, giving us his body to eat in the bread and his blood to drink in the wine.
Later, he would be led to trial before the Sanhedrin, which met in the Temple of Solomon. Here, the Lamb of God was condemned to die. On the cross, when He said, “It is finished,” God completed the sacrifice for our sins.
What the women found when they arrived at the tomb the next Sunday morning changed everything. The stone was rolled away; the guards had run away, and an angel greeted them. “He is not here! He is risen!” Once it sank in, the disciples went from sadness to joy. For Christians, the day of worship shifted from the Sabbath to the Lord’s Day. The very people who ran away and hid for fear of arrest would face arrest, torture, and eventually death themselves to proclaim the good news of salvation because of the death and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah. Today we still proclaim the same good news. Now we were redeemed, forgiven, and restored to fellowship with God.