Over the last two years, I have tried to set aside some time each day during Holy Week to reflect on the events of that particular day in the life of Jesus. Not only has this helped me learn Scripture by memorizing the outline of events, but it has also prepared my soul for Christ’s death on Good Friday and His victory over death on Resurrection Sunday.
As Christians, we are called to be followers of Christ. One of the ways we can follow Him is by walking in His footsteps through each day of the final week of His earthly ministry. As you may know, each Gospel writer devotes a large amount of attention to the final week of Jesus’s life. The reason for this is that the final week encapsulates the very purpose for which He came into the world—to give His life as a ransom for many (Matt. 20:28). While each Gospel writer highlights different aspects and offers a unique perspective, together they provide a complementary and cohesive chronological narrative.
Below, I’ve attached a harmony of the events of Jesus’s final week. The ESV Study Bible also includes a helpful version. During this Holy Week, I encourage you to read at least one Gospel account for each day of the week and follow in the steps of Jesus as He goes to the cross, is laid in the tomb, and conquers the grave on the first day of the week.
If you want to go deeper, I recommend reading all of the listed passages. After reading, spend some time in prayer, and ask the Lord to conform you to his image and to make you willing to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow him.
Let me leave you with two wonderful passages:
Through the death of Christ, we are blessed, that is justified and made alive. As long as sin, death and the curse remain in us, sin damns us, death kills us and the curse curses us; but when these things are transferred to Christ, what is ours becomes his, and what is his becomes ours. Let us learn, therefore, in every temptation, to transfer sin, death, and the curse and all the evils that oppress us from ourselves to Christ, and on the other hand to transfer righteousness, life and blessing from him to us. For he does in fact bear all our evils, because God the Father, as Isaiah says, ‘has laid on him the iniquity of us all.’ - Martin Luther, Lectures on Galatians, LW 26:292
If we seek salvation, the name of Jesus alone teaches us that it is in him…. If we desire the gifts of the Holy Spirit, we will find them in his anointing. If we are looking for strength, we have it in his lordship…. If we ask for redemption, his passion provides it. In his condemnation we have absolution. If we want pardon for sin’s curse, that gift lies in his cross. Atonement we have in his sacrifice and cleansing in his blood. Our reconciliation was effected by his descent into hell; the mortification of our flesh lies in his burial, and newness of life in his resurrection, through which we also have the hope of immortality. - John Calvin, Institutes on the Christian Religion, II.16.19
