Easter and Christmas are the two holidays that come around every year. In the hustle and bustle of everyday life, it’s hard to set aside intentional time to remember the reason behind the festivities. Holy Week, the week leading up to Easter, presents a variety of ways to set our hearts and minds on the narrative of the gospel. This story is interwoven through each of Jesus’ last moments before the cross. If you’re looking for ways to make Holy Week significant, these are five ways to celebrate Easter without just going through the motions.
These ideas were first shared in a Tiktok video I created two years ago. I was new to Tiktok and surprised when the video quickly gained traction. In a matter of days, it had received 80k views and hundreds of comments. It turns out Christians are hungry for ways to cut through empty traditions and celebrate Easter for what it is. It’s so easy to celebrate the same way and become numb to it year after year. It becomes just another event on your calendar rather than the most significant moment in history. Make this year different by celebrating with a fresh perspective.
Read the Story in Sequence
The last week of Jesus’ life before the cross is filled with exciting stories. He knows the end is near, so He uses His time intentionally. Each moment is filled with a teaching, a miracle, or an interaction he didn’t want his disciples to miss. Though we are used to hearing the story of the cross, meditating on the moments leading up to it may give a whole new context. As Good Friday approaches, you can find several Bible reading plans online which lay out the passages from Holy Week in sequence so that you can read the story chronologically. If this sounds exciting, you could take it one step further and read the stories in “real-time” each day they happened. This can transport you to ancient Isreal and help you feel the sentiments and emotions each character may have felt in the intense moments of Jesus’ last days. Of course, they didn’t realize what was about to happen. But it makes me wonder how Jesus felt. It must have been lonely knowing what was about to happen and knowing your closest circle of friends didn’t understand. And for the disciples, the intensity of Jesus’ voice as He conveyed His “last words” with such urgency must have been confusing. If you feel like Easter has become a rhythm you are immune to, immersing yourself in the intensity of that last week could give you a whole new perspective.
Observe the Last Supper with your Family
The Thursday before Easter is known as Maundy Thursday in liturgical church calendars. It also happens to be the night of the Last Supper. Jesus and His disciples were in Jerusalem for Passover, as were many Jewish families who had traveled from far and wide to be there. It was tradition to make this pilgrimage each year, as all of Israel remembered when God freed the Israelites from Egyptian captivity. So on the Thursday before Jesus’ death, He instructed His disciples to make preparations for the Passover meal, including procuring the upper room to meet in. As the disciples gathered, many moments from this last meal would be written down and remembered for centuries. Jesus referred to the bread and wine as His body and blood, washed his disciples’ feet, and taught the words of John 13-17.
There are many ways to remember the Last Supper with your family that you may not have tried before. In liturgical church traditions, a church service is held to partake in communion and wash each other’s feet. If your church doesn’t do this, you can do something with your own family. You could wash each other’s feet or gift a pedicure to a friend. You could also host a dinner for family and friends. This could just be a dinner party to catch up, or you could include some of the elements of a Passover or Seder dinner and teach about the symbolism that points to Christ. If hosting isn’t your thing, Maundy Thursday could be an excellent time to serve at a soup kitchen or food pantry to extend servanthood and generosity to others. No matter how to celebrate, here are a few links you mind find helpful to meditate on the significance of these stories:
- https://www.gotquestions.org/Upper-Room-Discourse.html
- https://www.gotquestions.org/Last-Supper.html
- https://www.gotquestions.org/Jesus-washing-feet.html
Remember Good Friday in Silence
Though many of our churches host Good Friday services, it’s easy to attend a service without really taking a moment to take it all in. Like any church service, Good Friday services can become a part of “going through the motions.” Sometimes, remembering this day in a new way and breaking up the routine can be healthy. Though the biblical narrative of Good Friday is filled with a slew of events and dozens of characters, the story strikes me as lonely. Though there were people all around, I wonder if each disciple felt confused and alone in their own way. Did they mull over Jesus’ last words to them in their mind? Did they flee from the scene because they couldn’t take it anymore? Did they feel like it was somehow their fault that they didn’t protect Jesus from this? That somber day was dark for each of them in unique ways.
This Good Friday, try observing the day in an intimate way with your Lord. Go into a room and turn off all of the lights. To minimize distraction, turn off your phone or mute notifications. Spend time in prayer identifying areas of sin in your life and practicing repentance before the Lord. Many of us struggle to practice repentance or even dwell in the sadness of Jesus’ death because the tension is uncomfortable. We want to skip to the end of the story when Jesus resurrects, and everything is better. But the entire narrative of the Scriptures is filled with the tension of waiting and seeking the Lord amid pain and suffering. Israel had experienced 400 years of silence before Jesus came on the scene. Even then, it must not have been comfortable when Jesus confronted the religious leaders with rebuke. We can just as easily make religious rituals more of our foundation than Jesus himself. Though we say Jesus is everything to us, what would it take for us to feel like our world was crumbling? What if you lost your job, house, friends, family, or career? The response you might imagine having to these tragedies might highlight an area of your life where you place your safety, security, or identity apart from Christ. Spend some time in prayer repenting of these things, and then read or listen to the words of Psalm 22. This is the Psalm that Jesus quoted from the cross. Listen to this Psalm through the eyes of Jesus and think about how He must have felt on the cross. Though it’s uncomfortable to dwell on this somber memory, it will make Easter all the more joyful.
Make Holy Saturday a New Tradition
If you’re looking for a new way to observe Easter, Holy Saturday provides an excellent opportunity to try something new. Many churches host Good Friday and Easter services, but the day between is often overlooked. I started to appreciate holy Saturday in college because it’s the theological basis for waiting for redemption. Unfortunately, we don’t think much of that Saturday because we’re often busy preparing for our Easter festivities. But have you ever thought about what that day before the resurrection might have been like? The disciples had just watched their Messiah die and had no idea what to do. They had devoted their lives to following Him, so I’m sure they hadn’t planned on a future without Him. They huddled together in fear and grief, waiting for the sabbath to be over before the women could anoint the body. For us, Holy Saturday represents the time between God’s promise and His fulfillment. There are many times throughout our lives when we are stuck in this in-between. Maybe he promised to provide for your needs, but you’re still waiting to find a new job. Maybe you’re going through a hard season, and you’re waiting on God for the suffering to end. If you are in a season of waiting, Holy Saturday may bring you more comfort than Easter itself. Because the promise of Holy Saturday is that even when things feel grim, the resurrection is coming. You never need to be without hope because even when you’re still stuck in Saturday, Sunday is around the corner.
The celebrate the hope that God brings dead things to life and makes everything new, you might want to take some time on Saturday to write down a list of things you’re waiting on God for. God cares about your unfulfilled longings, and He hears it when you pray, even if you’ve been pleasing for the same thing for months. On Holy Saturday, the disciples thought God was done. He was silent. They thought he may have abandoned them. But little did they know, the best part hadn’t even happened yet. So bring your longings and requests to Him, and dwell on the truth that Sunday always comes.
Another physical way to observe this day is by buying a large bouquet of flowers and creating a flower arrangement to decorate your Easter table. This act of preparation mimics the way the women prepared herbs and spices for Jesus’ body. You can remember and honor the women who made preparations even in their grief and use this time to bring your own unfulfilled longings before the feet of Jesus. It provides a tender and intimate moment of quiet before the rapturous joy of the resurrection. Of course, you could do this with a variety of decorations, egg dying, or baked goods, but I like the idea of filling your home with flowers to celebrate life and resurrection.
Fill Your Easter with Joy
If you’re tired of going through the motions every Easter, this year is an opportunity to practice joy. Sometimes, I think our Easter celebrations are filled more with tradition and obligation than joy and celebration. So think about what things you do when you celebrate. Shoot a confetti gun, have a dance party, blow up balloons, fill your home with streamers and treats, and maybe even use noise makers. Go out on the porch and clang your pots and pans as people do on New Year’s Eve. Light some sparklers or fireworks (safely, of course.) Go watch the sunrise and pop a bottle of champagne. Sing songs of joy and worship like nobody’s watching. If the resurrection is truly the most celebratory event in history, then we should celebrate it like never before. Don’t let your Christmas or New Year’s celebrations overshadow your Easter celebration. Do whatever it takes to make Easter take the cake. The rest of our culture sees Easter as a cute little holiday with some eggs and maybe a cooked ham. It’s not that exciting. But the resurrection is! Fill your Easter festivities with so much celebration and joy that it’s contagious to everyone around you!
There are dozens of fun Easter traditions and festivities to take part in other than these ideas. Maybe you want to dye eggs in a new way or bake some resurrection buns. Maybe going through Resurrection Eggs devotionals is more your speed. The beauty of it all is you can be creative. Easter is worth celebrating, so find a fresh way to fill your home with excitement and joy over the resurrection that changed our lives forever!
