Let these six powerful devotions help you start your 2023 Holy Week with a renewed spirit and refreshed prayer life, from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday.
READ MORE: 15 Palm Sunday Bible Verses
1. A Palm Sunday Devotion: Welcome Jesus!
A Palm Sunday devotion by Camy Tang
Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel among you. Isaiah 12:6 (TNIV)
I tried to imagine what it must have been like on that Palm Sunday when Jesus rode triumphantly into Jerusalem. What made the people so happy and joyful? Was it just that they expected Jesus to free them from the Romans? Did they realize how He would triumph over sin and death? What exactly made them so happy to have Jesus there in Jerusalem?
Then I remembered one trip my husband made for work. He had to travel for two weeks to China. Before he left, I didn’t think it would be that big a deal. I had left him at home for up to four weeks on business trips, and while I missed him when I was on the road, it hadn’t been a gut-wrenching type of loneliness.
But I hadn’t realized how lonely it would be for me without him there, in the house. All the places I was used to seeing him were empty. The things we used to do together were only hollow activities without him. We had often done our own things in separate rooms in the house—I would be working in my office while he watched television—but somehow being in my office wasn’t the same, because I knew he wasn’t in the next room.
When he finally came home, I didn’t spread palm leaves on the floor as he walked into the house, but I did give him a big hug, made his favorite dinner, and talked a mile a minute. I was incredibly happy just to have him there with me. The house felt different when I knew he was home.
I think that is how the Israelites felt as they welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem—they were welcoming Him home.
Faith step: On this Palm Sunday, let’s rejoice the way they did at the fact that Jesus is here with us, in our lives and in our hearts.
READ MORE: What is a Palm Sunday Parade?
2. Showing Up on Palm Sunday
Normally Marci Alborghetti deleted those forwarded e-mails with cute or sentimental stories without even reading them. She received so many, and when it comes to Internet profundity, she just didn’t have the time. But for some reason she read the one she received on Palm Sunday. In this unique Palm Sunday devotion, learn how a simple email changed Marci’s perspective about Palm Sunday.
3. Jesus’ Triumphal Entry
When Cynthia Ruchti read the Triumphal Entry story, she wondered where the angels were. We’re not told, she thought. Can we assume they were somewhere in the heavenly audience that day? Angels played key roles in the significant moments of the life of Jesus. To Mary, an angel announced the results of the celestial pregnancy test. An angel visited Joseph to tell him everything was going to be all right. Angels filled the sky the night Jesus was born. An angel warned Joseph and Mary to flee to Egypt. In Cynthia’s reflective Palm Sunday devotion, read about the role of angels and “hosanna” in the Palm Sunday story.
4. A Devotion for Holy Week
When Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. Matthew 27:50–52 (NIV)
How come this detail doesn’t get more notice? Many people came back to life on the day Jesus died. That’s a big deal! In all the Easter weeks Erin Keeley Marshall spent in church, never once did she remember a single mention of the life that began at the moment of Jesus’s death. In this Holy Week devotion you can read on Palm Sunday, see how the hope of Easter brightens the darkness of Good Friday.
5. After Palm Sunday: A Devotional for Monday of Holy Week
It was an unheard-of scandal! This young rabbi who yesterday had the whole city in a patriotic uproar, today stormed into the very temple precinct itself and created chaos. Doves flapping, men shouting, women scrabbling after the rolling coins. This fellow from Galilee, once again stirring up trouble! But stirring-up is always what happens when Jesus enters the scene. In this devotion by Elizabeth Sherrill, learn how Holy Monday has its parallel in our individual journey of faith.
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