Focused on the Cross: Seven Daily Readings for Holy Week

– April 11, 2022

This week is Holy Week, the period from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday. Last year, we posted a reading plan to guide you through the events of Holy Week as recorded in the four gospels. This year, our reading plan is focused on seeing the cross throughout Scripture.

Let me encourage you to invest a few moments each day to refocus your life on the cross of Christ. Recenter your life on what Christ accomplished for us, and how we are to live in response. May these passages and questions help us to see that clearly.

MONDAY

Read Psalm 22

  • As you read, pay close attention to verse 1, 7–8, and 16–18, as well as the change in tone following verse 21.
  • Ask: In what way does this Psalm specifically point us to the cross of Christ, and how does its ending point us to the purpose of the cross?

TUESDAY

Read Exodus 12:1–13

  • 1 Corinthians 5:7 says that “Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.”
  • Ask: How does the promise of Exodus 12:13 prepare us for what God does for us in Christ?

WEDNESDAY

Read Leviticus 16:1–22

  • Remember that unlike the Levitical priests, Hebrews 7:27 tells us that Christ “has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself.”
  • Ask: How do the two goats (Leviticus 16:15 and 20–22) reveal to us what God would do with our sins in Christ?

THURSDAY

Read Hebrews 9:24–10:18

  • Ask: What does verse 14 say about your eternal position before God, and also about what God is doing in your life now, because of Christ’s death for you?

FRIDAY

Read Isaiah 52:13–53:12

  • Ask: What is “the great exchange” described in 53:4–6? Who received what?
  • Ask: In what ways does 53:10–12 point us to the resurrection?

SATURDAY

Read Psalm 42–43

  • Ask: When we have seasons of sorrow, like those described in 42:2, how do the events of this weekend enable us to respond like 42:5, 11, and 43:5?

SUNDAY

Read Romans 6:1–11

  • Ask: What does our union with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection say about how we should now live?

Bert Watts has served since December 2016 as the Senior Pastor at Mountain Creek Baptist Church, where he has been on staff since 2012.

Photo by Yannick Pulver on Unsplash