Yesterday marked the start of Passion week for Christians around the world with it being Palm Sunday. Every year, I try to direct my family on what did the last week of Jesus’ life look like? How can we look through the Gospels and see how he spent his week leading up to his death and crucifixion and ending with his resurrection? As a Christian parent we put the emphasis on what Easter is all about, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. A good resource that I keep going back to is The Final Days of Jesus by Andreas J. Kostenberger and Justin Taylor.
I am thankful for this resource that has everything sorted out for me to read and piece together the last few days of Jesus leading to his death and resurrection.
How I Use it for Personal Devotion?
I read each day leading up to the resurrection and those particular passages of Scripture that relates to that day. I spend time with personal reflection on what Jesus not only went through but with the big question of why. He went through all of this to save sinners (1 Timothy 1:15). I see the seriousness of my sin and the greatness of his love which leads me to repentance. As I confess my sin, I am reminded of how God is faithful to forgive and this all possible because of Jesus Christ.
How do I Use it within Family Devotions?
My children are younger so I usually summarize all that Jesus did in that day and highlight one particular part of it to use as a teaching moment. The goal that I have with my children is two-fold.
First, it is to show them that not only Jesus actually walked the earth, but these events did actually happen. Everything is pointing to not just Jesus crucifixion but to His Resurrection. It really happened!
Second, it is to remind them of what Easter is all about. Now, we do hide eggs for fun in our family. But, it is never highlighted as the main thing or even what Easter is all about. My kids look at it as a way to get candy and prizes. We stress the importance of what we are celebrating that our Savior and King Jesus suffered and died on our behalf. He took on the sin of the world, though he is sinless. We are sorrowful for our sin. We know our sin is serious. So serious that Jesus took God the Father’s wrath for our sin. We also talk about about the greatness that Jesus rose from the dead three days later. That Jesus who died is alive to this day as our conquering hero over sin and death (1 Corinthians 15:56-57).
This is the greatest news ever! We have an opportunity to share it with others and we end with praying for others and asking God to gives an opportunity to share it with them.