Lord Jesus, As we walk through your Holy week, open our hearts to see how your suffering and death lead to life. Help us to know that we too must take up our cross daily and follow you. Amen.
Last post, we explored how creation week reveals God's pattern for bringing life from potential, being from nothingness. Of course that pattern repeats throughout Scripture and it finds its fullness in Holy Week.
Holy Week doesn't just commemorate Jesus's death and resurrection and it's not merely a sequence of events to bring about redemption. It recapitulates and completes the creation pattern, revealing what theologians have long called "the eighth day" - the day of new creation, eternal life, and cosmic renewal.
The Same Pattern, Redeemed
Day 0 - The Hidden Ministry and Anticipation
Throughout the Gospels, Jesus repeatedly commands silence: "See that you don't tell anyone" (Matthew 8:4, CSB). This is the silence before God says "Let there be light." Of course, nobody listened to Him which built anticipation - similar to the Holy Spirit hovering over the waters. Jesus's ministry had been building toward this week, when He would finally be enthroned as King.
Day 1 - Palm Sunday: Light Enters Darkness
"Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" (Matthew 21:9, CSB). Just as Day 1 saw light enter the darkness with God's first Word, Palm Sunday breaks the silence as the Light of the World enters the darkness of Jerusalem. The crowds proclaim that the long-awaited Messiah had come - against a background of great tribulation.
Day 2 - Cleansing the Temple: Holy Separation
"My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of thieves!" (Matthew 21:13, CSB). Just as Day 2 separated the waters above from below, establishing the heavens, Jesus separates the holy from the profane in His Father's house. He drives out the money changers, creating the distinction between true worship and false commerce. The temple - the meeting place between heaven and earth - is restored to its proper purpose.
Day 3 - Teaching at the Temple: Foundation and Seeds
"Jesus entered the temple courts and was teaching" (Mark 11:27, CSB). As Day 3 brought forth dry ground and seed-bearing plants, Jesus plants the seeds through parables that will grow into the Church and become its foundation.
Day 4 - Anointing and Betrayal: Establishing The King and Savior
At Bethany, He is anointed for burial (Mark 14:8, CSB), which, of course, is also His anointing as King. Meanwhile Judas seals the betrayal for thirty pieces of silver (Matthew 26:14-16, CSB). Just as Day 4 established the governing lights, this day establishes Jesus as both suffering servant and sovereign king - filling the entirety of governance in one.
Day 5 - Maundy Thursday: Change and Stress
"Then they all deserted Him and fled" (Mark 14:50, CSB). Just as Day 5 introduced creatures capable of movement and change, Maundy Thursday sets everything in motion. Jesus institutes the Eucharist, provides some of His most important teachings, and their new commandments. Then comes the agony in Gethsemane and the arrest - movement from safety to danger, from peace to conflict. Just when they thought that everything was on solid ground, everything is taken away. Like the birds and fish of creation, the disciples flee into chaos. Here the pattern becomes a bit fuller as we get this concept of stress from what appeared to be stable.
The Days of Completion and Renewal
Day 6 - Good Friday: - The Climax and Judgment
"When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, 'It is finished!' Then bowing his head, he gave up his spirit" (John 19:30, CSB). Just as Day 6 brought creation to completion with humanity made in God's image, Good Friday brings redemption to completion with the God-man offering perfect sacrifice. The Greek word tetelestai ("it is finished") doesn't mean "it's over" but "it is accomplished" - the work is complete.
What is now fully revealed here is that Day 6 is the day of ultimate judgment. Christ becomes both judge and judged. Creation's sixth day culminated in beings who could rule and judge; redemption's sixth day culminates in the one who judges justly by taking judgment upon Himself. And then God judges through the darkening of the Sun, the tearing of the curtain, and the hanging of Judas.
Day 7 - Silent Saturday: Rest in Death
As God rested on the seventh day from His work of creation, Christ “rests” on Saturday from His work of redemption - but His rest is the silence of death, which is the fullness of the pattern of the seventh day.
Yet even in death, Christ's work continues in the realm of the dead. As the Apostles' Creed declares, He "descended into hell" - not to suffer further, but to proclaim victory to the spirits in prison (1 Peter 3:19, CSB). The seventh day that began as rest becomes the conquest over death itself - which is revealed on the new eighth day.
Day 8 - Easter Sunday: The Eighth Day Revealed
"‘Why are you looking for the living among the dead… He is not here, but He has risen!’" (Luke 24:5-6, CSB). This is the first day of the week and now it is simultaneously the eighth day - the day that transcends the weekly cycle. Early Christians understood this immediately. "This is why we joyfully celebrate the eighth day, when Jesus rose from the dead" (Epistle of Barnabas, 15:9).
This isn't just resurrection - it's a new day dawning (Matthew 28:1, CSB).
Now the pattern is completed and transcended. Creation moved from chaos to cosmos in seven days. Redemption moves from sin to salvation in the same rhythm, but then continues into the eighth day of renewal and resurrection. You can see this pattern throughout the Old Testament and it is fully revealed in Christ.
Seeing the Pattern
As you read Scripture look for this pattern, specifically rest and renewal. Does someone sleep and then awake to some fundamental change? Is there death which leads to new life? Does God destroy something to then bring renewal?
How does seeing Holy Week through this lens change your understanding of Easter? What connections are you noticing between the creation pattern and your own life's rhythms of ending and renewal?
Next post: How this pattern reaches its cosmic conclusion in the book of Revelation, where John's vision reveals the ultimate eighth day - the new heaven and new earth where God makes all things new…