The Holy Week is a sacred week for us who believe that Jesus died on the cross for us. Here’s a Holy Week Meditation Guide for you as we journey this sacred road together this week.

This was inspired from beautiful Holy Week meditation guides I have been using  through the years.

Methods Used: Meditation,  Journal Reflection and Prayer.
Things Needed: Quiet Place and Journal Notebook

Palm Sunday 

Introduction
Palm Sunday is the beginning of the Holy week. It is the Sunday before Easter that begins the Holy Week. It is the day that we remember and celebrate the day Jesus entered into Jerusalem as Savior and King. As Jesus rode a donkey into the town of Jerusalem a large crowd gathered and laid palm branches and their cloaks across the road.

Scripture: Matthew 21:1-11

Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week,  it commemorates
Jesus triumphantly riding into Jerusalem amidst cheers of adulation; as it ended, He lay enshrouded in a tomb. Thanks be to God, we know that his glorious resurrection would follow! But Jesus could not leap over Holy Week to Easter; and as his disciples, neither can we. Like Him, we carry our cross.

Meditation
We will never know fully the mind of Jesus. As He was portrayed in the in the Gospels, we now wonder what was racing  through His mind. 

Did he expect a confrontation with the religious establishment? Amid the waving of palms and cries of Hosanna, he must have thought the reign of God was truly at hand or maybe love was going to win the day? Were they  swept into the holy city on waves of hopefulness?

Ironies abound in the Gospel stories the whole week. Sadly, among them is the fickled nature of the crowd which changed in one short week. No one expected that  the celebration  would quickly turn dark. What was Jesus thinking? Was He hoping for the turn of events? For sure He trusted the presence of His Father during this occasion.

 Journal Reflection:
We have gone through the same path as Jesus, one way or another. We have been celebrating one joyful occasion then suddenly we are interrupted by an unexpected news giving us heart ache.

Put yourself into the story and visualize the crowds around Jesus walking toward Jerusalem on the way to the Passover festival. As you walk along, note where you are. Were you ahead, beside or behind Him.  Who were you in your meditation? Were you  a follower, a reluctant watcher, or a studious observer of Jesus of Nazareth? And what are you now in the present times? Are still the same?    Where do you sense God’s presence in these circumstances?
As you continue to reflect, ask this question “Who is this Jesus and what difference does my answer make?”

Prayer: O God, in this Holiest of Weeks, guide my path, fire my imagination, and open my heart to the deep and penetrating questions of life. Amen