Holy Week

About this plan

Holy Week is the church’s slowest week, and this plan reads it a day at a time, from Palm Sunday to Easter Day. Each day has its own chapters, so you move with the events instead of reading about them all at once.

Palm Sunday brings the king into Jerusalem on a donkey in Matthew 21. Monday and Tuesday are the clearing of the temple and Jesus’ teaching there, with Mark’s account of the end of the age. On Maundy Thursday you read the Passover in Exodus 12, Jesus washing his disciples’ feet in John 13 and the Last Supper and Gethsemane in Luke 22. Good Friday pairs John 19 with Isaiah 53, the servant pierced for our transgressions, and Psalm 22. Holy Saturday is the burial and the sealed tomb in Matthew 27, and Easter Day ends the week with the empty tomb in Matthew 28 and John 20.

Holy Week moves with Easter. A separate plan reads the same chapters on the Orthodox calendar.

What you’ll read

• The king on a donkeyPalm SundayMatthew 21, Psalm 118
• The Passover and the Last SupperMaundy ThursdayExodus 12, John 13, Luke 22
• The servant piercedGood FridayIsaiah 53, Psalm 22, John 19
• The sealed tombHoly SaturdayMatthew 27, Job 14
• He is risenEaster DayMatthew 28, John 20

18 chapters · 9 books · every Holy Week

This plan follows the church year: Day 1 is Palm Sunday and Day 8 is Easter Day. Holy Week moves with Easter, so these dates change every year.