6 Holy Week Tools to Expand Your Love for Jesus!

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Holy Week is here! It’s a time to slow down, sit at Jesus’ feet and have your heart warmed and overflowing with worship and thanksgiving. There is no holiday that I love more, so I’ve provided some tools to expand your love for Jesus and your view of who He is and what He’s done. Scroll down to the bottom for links to a great devotional, a few audio accounts, and a compilation of scriptures to expand your love for Jesus.

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Expand your love for Jesus this Holy Week

My words will be few in this post, because I want you to read God’s Words–not mine;)

Jesus was welcomed with great enthusiasm into Jerusalem with crowds shouting Hosanna! To the onlooker, you would think the week would have gone quite differently. But, God’s plan was quite different than Jesus’ followers anticipated. And, as always, His plan is perfect. What would be different in our lives if the events of Holy Week never happened?

Would I know humility and cleansing? John 13:1-17

1 It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

² The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. ³ Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; ⁴ so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. ⁵ After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

⁶ He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

⁷ Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

⁸ “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”

Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

⁹ “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”

¹⁰ Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” ¹¹ For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.

¹² When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. ¹³ “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. ¹⁴ Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵ I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. ¹⁶ Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. ¹⁷ Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

Jesus modeled humble servanthood

Jesus washed the feet of his disciples–even the disciple that was about to betray him. When I stop to really think about it (and I’m only sharing a tiny bit), the God and Creator of all things was washing the dirt off of their feet, just as He washes away our filthy debilitating sin and guilt. What humble servanthood.

How do I serve Him today with the people around me?

• I need to genuinely love others–even those who have wronged me.
• I need to forgive others the same way He forgives me.
• I need to surrender my rights in order to fully love those around me.

What is it that I’m unwilling to do for someone else? Where do I draw the line? Jesus didn’t draw the line . . .

Would my life have purpose? John 14

14 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God^[a]; believe also in me. ² My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. ⁴ You know the way to the place where I am going.”

He left to prepare a place for us

Jesus was about to leave earth and He wanted to share His reason for going with His precious friends. He was going to prepare a place for them and us. “In my Father’s house there are many rooms. . .I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me, that you also may be where I am.” He came down from heaven with a purpose, a mission, that He would carry out on our behalf and in obedience to His Father.

Would I have a meaningful purpose if not for His sacrifice? I’m pretty sure I could survive and get through life meandering along my own path. Surviving would pretty much describe it though, because I know I would be living my life in fear of the “what ifs” and not be very successful at loving others. What a difference a divine purpose and an indwelling Spirit makes! I have great purpose and I know my destination–beautiful heaven with my Lord who has a place all prepared for me.

• Is Jesus’ return something we ponder and long for on a daily basis?
• What would life look like if He didn’t leave earth and send His Holy Spirit to dwell within us?
• Where do I lack the long-term view and hope of heaven?

Would I bear any lasting fruit? John 15

⁹ “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. ¹⁰ If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. ¹¹ I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. ¹² My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.¹³ Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. ¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command. ¹⁵ I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. ¹⁶ You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. ¹⁷ This is my command: Love each other.”

Jesus said, “Remain in my love.” He talked a lot about loving each other in this chapter. The only kind of love I’m capable of without Him is a selfish kind of love. But, with His Spirit, I’m capable of the kind of love that gives without expecting anything in return.

Would my hope of eternal life have roots? John 19-21

^19:28 Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” ²⁹ A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. ³⁰ When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

^20:3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. ⁴ Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.⁵ He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. ⁶ Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, ⁷ as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. ⁸ Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed.

Jesus paid it all

Jesus gave all that He could give. When I reflect on what He experienced at the end of His life, I can’t even express what I feel. When I was a new believer, I thought a lot about, “Why did God require such a high sacrifice? Why couldn’t He have chosen something else?”

Now what I ponder and grieve over is my own sin and the sin that we all struggle with. The sin that required a perfect Lamb of God to be brutally treated and experience the burden of all that wrong doing heaped on His own body. To be separated for the first time from His Heavenly Father while He bore all that sin and guilt, and to pay the ultimate price for it. Of course the end of the story isn’t Jesus’ death. The tomb was empty! Jesus rose from the dead, victorious over sin and death. That’s why we celebrate Easter with joy and thanksgiving!

Before I came to put my trust in Jesus, if someone had asked me where I was going after I died, I would have replied “Heaven, I think. I’m a good person.” I had no assurance and no understanding of the depth of my sin and how that separated me from God. Now, I can say without hesitation, “I’m going to heaven to be with my Lord and Savior. He died and rose again so that I too can die and have eternal life.”

Examine the evidence

There is quite a bit of evidence supporting the fact that the death and resurrection of Jesus really happened.

• Have you received life in His Name?
• Are you receiving abundant life as you walk hand in hand with Him daily?
• Is there evidence of Him living inside you? Does your life look different than a non-believer? (This one is convicting for me. Maybe it is for you too.)

Reflect on John 14-21 to expand your love for Jesus

How would your life look different if the events of Holy Week had not included Jesus’ death and resurrection?

All of the Gospels are rich, so reading the Holy Week account in all of them brings more understanding and richness. But, if you have to choose only one in which to linger, I love to read through the book of John.

Here’s a few links that provide great tools as you worship this week. The audio links provide great listening while driving in the car or while you’re making dinner.

Holy Week Readings:

https://www.biblegateway.com/blog/2014/04/bible-verses-for-holy-week/

Read the Easter Story:

Matthew 26-28   https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew+26-28&version=NIV

Mark 14-16  https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=mark+14-16&version=NIV

Luke 22-24   https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke+22-24&version=NIV

John 18-20   https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john+18-20&version=NIV

Listen to the Easter story on Breathe Bible 

https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/breathe/nlt/Mark.14

Easter story dramatization from Witness the Bible

https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/devotional/witness-the-bible-mark/13-Mark14

Listen to the Easter story from The Message

https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/dolan/msg/Mark.13

Devotional readings for Holy Week from Desiring God Ministries

https://www.desiringgod.org/books/love-to-the-uttermost

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