CHRISTIAN WORLDVIEW- HOLY WEEKDr. Sue Makin

Department of Nursing

What is Holy Week in Christianity?

• Holy means dedicated to God.• Christians celebrate events in the life of Jesus Christ throughout the year.

• The two great celebrations of the Christian year are Christmas, which celebrates the birth of Jesus, and Easter, which remembers the betrayal, arrest, trial, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus.

What is Holy Week in Christianity?

• Betrayal – to deliver into the hands of an enemy• Arrest - to be taken into custody by legal authority

• Trial – legal procedure where a person is judged• Crucifixion – method of killing a person by nailing him to a cross

• Resurrection – the act of rising from the dead and returning to life

What is Holy Week in Christianity?

• Holy Week helps Christians remember the life of Jesus.

• The week begins on Palm Sunday, which is one week before Easter Sunday.

• On Palm Sunday Christians celebrate the day when Jesus rode into Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, on a donkey. A large crowd of people welcomed him as if he were a king.

Mathew 21: 6 - 10

• 6The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. 7They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. 8Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 

• 9And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna( in the highest!" 10And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, "Who is this?"

Holy Week – Monday through Wednesday

• Mathew 21: 12 – 16•  12 And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 13He said to them, "It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer,' but you make it a den of robbers." 

• 14 And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" they were indignant,

•  16and they said to him, "Do you hear what these are saying?" And Jesus said to them, "Yes; have you never read,

    "'Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies   you have prepared praise'?"

Thursday – Maundy Thursday

• On the day before Jesus was to be arrested by the Roman authorities, he celebrated his last supper with his group of twelve apostles, or followers

• During this last supper, Jesus explained to his followers that one of the people at the meal would betray him, and he instituted what Christians call “The Last Supper.”

• “The Last Supper” is celebrated in Christian churches to remember this event in the life of Jesus.

Mathew 21: 26 - 29

• 26 Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, "Take, eat; this is my body." 27And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, "Drink of it, all of you, 

• 28for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 29I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom."

Michelangelo’s – The Last Supper

Good Friday

• Good Friday is the day that Jesus was taken to a hill called Calvary outside the city of Jerusalem, he was nailed to a wooden cross, along with two other men who were condemned to die.

• Jesus was ordered to be killed by the Roman authorities because the Jewish leaders wanted to get rid of Jesus. The Jewish leaders thought that Jesus was a heretic, a trouble-maker, and a threat to their authority.

Matthew 27: 45 - 50

• 45Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. 46And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying,  "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" 47And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, "This man is calling Elijah."

•  48And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. 49But the others said, "Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him."50And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.

The Crucifixion

The Burial of Jesus

• Mathew 27: 57 – 60•  57When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who also was a disciple of Jesus. 58He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him.  

•   59And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud 60and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut in the rock. And he rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away.

Easter Sunday – the resurrection of Jesus

• 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. 2And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow.

•  4And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. 5But the angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. 6He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. 

• 7Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you."

Mary Magdalene and the other women at the tomb

The empty tomb of Jesus