Justin Taylor’s helpful series of posts summarizes what happened on Wednesday of Holy Week.

With help from Craig Blomberg’s excellent Jesus and the Gospels, here’s a reconstruction of events on Easter Sunday. This is my final installment in the Holy Week series.

Some women arrive at Jesus’ tomb near dawn, probably with Mary Magdalene arriving first.

Matthew 28:1

Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. . .

Be sure and read the rest here!!

Theologically speaking, we all know that today, the Saturday between the Cross and the Resurrection, is the longest day of the year.*

And, it pictures where we are in life.  While we have a certain and fixed hope, we still wait for the return of Christ.

Nowhere is this felt more keenly than in the nursing home.  I went to two different nursing homes today.  The first lady I prayed with is near the end.  This will most likely be her final Saturday before Easter.  I read to her both the account of the crucifixion and the resurrection from Matthew’s Gospel.

But, my final visit was to a dear lady in our church who is still thinking clearly, and so wrestling with waiting in a nursing home.  She tried to be positive; she told me they had a blessed Good Friday service and that the preaching was her favorite part.

She then confessed to me that she has been reading the Catholic devotional aloud to the Catholics.  She said, “Pastor, they don’t have anyone who is up to reading right now, so I read it to them.” I gave her absolution for this (in a Protestant sort of way) and told her it is okay.

Still, this dear sister is very tired of being in the nursing home.  I said to her, “It’s so much like waiting for Christmas when you’re young.  It seems as though it will never get here.  But, very soon, the resurrection will be here, and the dead in Christ will rise, and so we can be comforted with these words (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).”

Is there someone who won’t be able to get out for Easter this year that you could encourage?  Even tomorrow, it’s still Saturday in the nursing home.

*Reposted from 2010.

Justin Taylor’s helpful series of posts summarizes what happened on Friday of Holy Week.

Jesus is betrayed by Judas and arrested by the authorities (perhaps after midnight, early Friday morning)

Matthew 26:47-56

While he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a great crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the elders of the people. Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying,

“The one I will kiss is the man; seize him.”

And he came up to Jesus at once and said,

“Greetings, Rabbi!”

And he kissed him.

Jesus said to him,

“Friend, do what you came to do.”

Read the rest here.

Justin Taylor’s helpful series of posts summarizes what happened on Thursday of Holy Week.

With help from the ESV Study Bible, here’s an attempted harmony/chronology of the words and actions of Jesus in the final week of his pre-resurrection life.

Jesus instructs his Peter and John to secure a large upper room in a house in Jerusalem and to prepare for the Passover meal . . .

Read the rest here.

Justin Taylor’s helpful series of posts summarizes what happened on Wednesday of Holy Week.

With help from the ESV Study Bible, here’s an attempted harmony/chronology of the words and actions of Jesus in the final week of his pre-resurrection life.

Jesus continues his daily teaching in the Temple

Luke 21:37-38

And every day he was teaching in the temple, but at night he went out and lodged on the mount called Olivet.

And early in the morning all the people came to him in the temple to hear him.

With Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread approaching, the chief priests, elders, and scribes plot . . .

Read the whole thing here.

Justin Taylor’s helpful series of posts summarizes what happened on Tuesday of Holy Week.

With help from the ESV Study Bible, here’s an attempted harmony/chronology of the words and actions of Jesus in the final week of his pre-resurrection life.

Jesus’ disciples see the withered fig tree on their return to Jerusalem from Bethany

Matthew 21:20-22

When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying,

“How did the fig tree wither at once?”

And Jesus answered them,

“Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”

Read the rest here.

Justin Taylor summarizes what happened on Sunday of Holy Week (here).

Dan Phillips:

The irony of the phrase “Good Friday” has been noted, probably, by all of us. “Good” for us, certainly. Without the cross-work of the Son of God on that day, all would be lost, hopelessly and forever.

But of course it was a horrid day, viewed from any other angle. Our race — Adam’s race — reached its nadir on that day. Any appalling crime you can call to mind was bottomed by the mock-trial and the mocking of God incarnate. At that point, we hit bottom, and the Gospels record it for all to see, for all time.

But the worst day, ever, for the apostles and most who loved Jesus, had to be that Saturday, which today marks.

Read the rest here.