Family Holy Week DevotionalSample

READ TOGETHER Today, sometimes called Good Friday, is a hard day to read about and think about. All night long, Jesus had been questioned, made fun of, beaten, called a liar, and accused of doing things he had never done. He was put on trial by religious leaders and by government officials. Early on Friday morning, Pilate, who was the Roman governor in charge of the province of Judea (where Jerusalem was), told the crowd that he would release Jesus. But the crowd yelled and roared and asked for a different prisoner, Barabbas, instead. The people did not understand who Jesus was. And so, Jesus was sentenced to be crucified, to die by hanging on a cross. The Roman soldiers gathered around Jesus and mocked him for saying He was the King of the Jews. They took off his clothes, put a “king’s” robe on him and a crown of thorns on his head. Have you ever pricked your finger on a thorn or a sharp plant? Imagine that around your whole head! The soldiers did and said more mean things than you could ever imagine and hurt Jesus in terrible ways. Then, it was time for Jesus to be put on the cross. His hands were stretched out and nailed to the cross beams, and his feet were nailed to the bottom. This was a very painful way to die. Jesus could have chosen to save himself at any moment, but he endured all of this because of his love for us. The soldiers and the crowd continued to mock him. At noon on that Friday, the Bible tells us that darkness fell across the whole land, pitch black like the night, even in the middle of the day. You see -- this was not just a person who was dying, this was God’s very own Son! And when Jesus died, the whole earth knew it. An earthquake shook the ground. The curtain in the Temple that used to separate people from the presence of God was torn completely in half from the very top to the bottom. Even the Roman soldiers, who had been so mean to Jesus, believed he was the Son of God when they saw what happened. Many of Jesus’ friends, and even his disciples, had abandoned him because they were so afraid. But then, a man named Joseph who was a follower of Jesus, asked Pilate if he could bury Jesus’ body. He wrapped Jesus’ body in a long, white linen cloth and placed him carefully into his tomb, which was kind of like a cave. Then a heavy, giant stone was rolled in front of the entrance so no one could go in or out. Jesus had lived a perfect, sinless life, and then paid the price for our sins by dying on the cross. Jesus’ death wasn’t for anything he had done wrong.  It was our sin, our mistakes that we make every day, that put him there. Because of Jesus’ obedience to his Father, we do not have to earn our way to heaven. Nothing we do can make God love us more or less. We will still sin because we are not perfect, but Jesus has paid for our sin by dying on the cross for us. TALK TOGETHER 1 - Have you ever seen people mocking or being mean to someone like the soldiers were doing to Jesus? How did it make you feel? 2 - Why did Jesus have to die on the cross for us? PRAY TOGETHER Dear God, thank you for loving us so much that you sent your Son to earth to die for us. Jesus, you gave up your life and endured a painful death so that we can have a relationship with our Father God. You are so good to us. We don’t deserve your love but we are grateful for it. We love you. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.