An Easter Prayer for Each Day of Holy Week
Share
Easter week begins on Palm Sunday and concludes with Jesus’ resurrection, meaning the total duration is eight days. Each of those eight days has its own significance and this is a point at which the Bible seems to slow down. Frequently, a lot of time passes between recorded episodes, but not here.
In this season, we slow down too, weighing the impact of those eight days on our own lives and what Christ’s death and resurrection means for us. Here is a prayer for each of those eight days to help you connect with the meaning of Easter.
1. Palm Sunday
“So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, ‘Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!’” (John 12:13).
Lord,
The people were so excited to see Jesus ride into Jerusalem; they could see that Zechariah 9:9 was fulfilled: “Your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” He was finally here to save them. But hearts turn quickly, and soon these people would turn on Jesus.
Father, how quickly my own heart turns. I cry to you, you answer me, and then I forget the joy of seeing you enter my pain.
God, please forgive me for the speed with which I switch from open arms to closed fists. Help me to imagine the aroma of those palm leaves, the sun baking the ground underneath them and the scent of hot sand under the donkeys’ hooves. On that day we call Palm Sunday, you fulfilled a promise which resonates with me and all believers right now. You came into our lives, solid and real and human, to be close to us.
Make my heart cry out with gladness, in celebration, every day as I acknowledge you are my Savior and King.
Amen.
Photo credit: ©Getty Images/Coompia77
2. Holy Monday
“It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers” (Matthew 21:13).
Lord Almighty,
In what ways do I turn your house into a “den of robbers”? What do I take from you? Show me who I have influence over and how I am leading them. Do they see you and start walking towards the temple; do I act in ways which obscure my total reliance on you? Or do they see weak faith and inconsistency in me, making my witness drab and impotent?
God, keep my heart pure and my mind sharp to take inventory regularly and spot the areas where I abuse what you give me, defiling your goodness for myself, rejecting and dishonoring you, and misleading or oppressing others. Father, please bring me to my knees often for the beautiful privilege of confession, forgiveness, and even your living discipline. What a privilege to know that, because your Son tore the veil, I can approach you any time, anywhere.
Amen.
Photo credit: SWN
3. Holy Tuesday
“Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done” (Matthew 21:21-22).
Father,
I hear this and immediately start to think “I could never tell a mountain to fall into the sea. I doubt your power, and I doubt your power in me.” Forgive me, Lord. This often makes no sense to me, and then I remember that sometimes the enemy I need to destroy is different from the one I had in my sights.
Help me to recognize the sin in my life and to throw it into the depths so that I will not be a fruitless fig tree, one that appears so promising to a world that needs your love, but disappoints when someone comes close enough to see the cracks of discouragement which spread when I spend too little time in your Word and in prayer. Give me the strength, compassion, discernment, love, discipline, and endurance to be what is needed for others: an empathetic listener, a helper, a servant. When someone sees your presence in my life, even if they do not know what they see, let it lead them to the truth of your glory.
Amen.
Photo credit: SWN
4. Holy Wednesday
“In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial. Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her” (Matthew 26:12-13).
Lord God,
This lady recognized Jesus. The veil had been raised for her, and her devotion to Jesus was so apparent, Lord, that Jesus wanted us to remember her today. This woman’s humble act of service to Jesus is a reminder to me that all I have is yours. It is a call to love Jesus better than anyone or anything – better than expensive perfume and other finite objects, better than my status among doubters who deride me for giving you my life.
She also helps me come to grips with the puzzle that is my grief over Jesus’ brutal death, which he endured for her and for me. I know you are alive and you defeated death, but I cannot get to the empty tomb without first confronting the cross. Thank you that Jesus honored this woman who poured out her heart to him in that act of service. I still grieve over the torture you experienced, but it is so comforting to be able to trust you with the gamut of emotions I feel at Easter.
Amen.
Photo credit: SWN
5. Maundy Thursday
“Go into the city to a certain man and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, My time is at hand. I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples’” (Matthew 26:18).
Dear Heavenly Father,
The first followers of your Son feared for their lives because it was dangerous to follow Jesus of Nazareth from the very beginning. Jesus did not mention this “certain man” by name, but protected him while providing clues which enabled the disciples to complete their task.
To this day, we do not know the names of so many helpers. They play small supporting roles which you could have omitted entirely, but here they are. What are you saying to me Lord? Matthew Henry wrote: “He knows those hidden ones who favour his cause, and will graciously visit all who are willing to receive him.” You graciously point out that there are many little roles in Kingdom work, and people whom posterity will never be able to name, but whose roles are remembered.
I know that if no one on earth ever remembers me, my name is written in the Book of Life. Let me be content to disappear in the earthly sense, to submit wholly to Jesus, fully aware that my life is “hidden in Christ” (Colossians 3:3).
Amen.
Photo credit: SWN
6. Good Friday
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46).
Lord Jesus,
This is the worst thing, the punishment I cannot bear to consider. This is the punishment you took for my sin, the one I will never have to experience. There will never be a time when I call out to you and you turn away from me. I might have to endure physical pain, financial hardship, or mental illness because of this broken world and my own brokenness, but I never walk alone.
I will be rejected by others for my faith, but you always call me “daughter” and, through your Son’s sacrifice, I have a place at the table. Father, your Son chose to bear the horrible pain of crucifixion and the anguish of separation as you turned away from the sin you cannot abide. We exclaim with Asaph “Your way, O God, is holy. What god is great like our God?” (Psalm 77:13). Thank you, Lord.
Amen.
Photo credit: SWN
7. Black Saturday
“So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard” (Matthew 27:66).
God,
Pilate’s guard was formidable, chosen from a troop of highly-trained military men. Their equivalent is always standing guard, Lord, as today’s staunch atheists, ready to defend their skepticism against the assault which is our well-reasoned faith. Father, how do we approach this armed guard without becoming bullies bearing weapons? And what do we really want to do with him?
My heart sometimes longs to put him in his place, but that is not what your mercy calls for. Mercy removed the stone from my heart so I could come out of my tomb and live in Christ. Those soldiers lived, and who knows what they did with their second chance to follow Jesus.
So give me a spirit of peace and love for the guards who stand armed with their hollow, skeptical certainties, trying to humiliate the faithful with their incomplete defense against Christ. Remind me when I’m defensive that it is your power which overcame them, not mine.
Amen.
Photo credit: SWN
8. Resurrection Sunday
“Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live’” (John 11:25).
Father,
I imagine Martha’s deep suffering, her terrible grief. Lazarus, her brother, had been sick and she knew that Jesus could have saved him, but now it was too late. Yet, she was missing something that I also frequently miss.
Lord, your Son came to give us resurrection life even while we continue to live in these finite and fragile bodies. Sin is death, but Jesus gives me life. The cross is empty. The tomb is empty. How can we show others this beautiful reality which is more real than the temporal world around us?
Your Son did something incomprehensible by putting death in its place so that I can overcome death every day. He tore the veil, so that anyone who cries out can receive Christ into his or her life and be raised from the dead right now. Give me new eyes to see and a new determination to show you to others who are still viewing life from the grave. Please continue to sanctify me, so that my faith is increasingly reasonable and loving and encouraging to others. If that means I have to talk about the tomb you broke me out of, then so be it.
On Easter Sunday, we recognize the completeness of our depravity, Lord, and the fullness of your power to overcome it and raise us up. By faith, we submit to your power with joy, knowing that any other way of life really leads to death. Fill me with resurrection joy, like a criminal who has been spared the noose, given a second chance at life. Flood my heart with thankfulness and my mind with your purpose.
Father, let me live in the humility and hope of Easter all year long. In your Son’s precious name I pray all of these things.
Amen.
Photo credit: ©Getty Images/AlessandroPhoto
