It Is Well with My Soul: The Sacred Roots Annual 2022-2023

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T he O bservance of H oly W eek

H oly S aturday April 8, 2023

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Holy Week recalls the events of our Lord’s suffering and death. We recall his triumphant entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, his giving of the commandments on Maundy Thursday, his crucifixion and burial on Good Friday, and the solemn vigil of Saturday night before Easter Sunday.

TODAY’S THEME Jesus Is Buried, John 19.38-42

Joseph of Arimathea, a believer and one waiting for the Kingdom, got permission from Pilate to bury Jesus’s dead body, and made the arrangements with Nicodemus. These two, although members of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish council, did not consent with the leaders’ decision to crucify Jesus, but took about 75 pounds of myrrh and aloes and prepared our Lord’s body for burial. They would bury Jesus in a borrowed tomb, the final act of humiliation in the crucifixion spectacle.

D aily D evotional G uide P reparing O ur H earts Invocation: Our Prayer of Acclamation

O Lord our God, Father of the Crucified, increase our faith, and in every trial that awaits us teach us to look up to thee without doubt or fear, persuaded that thy mercies are ever sure. In whom shall we put our trust but in thee? Defend us, for we are thine; give us assurance that in life or in death, none shall pluck us out of thy hand; and when the hour has come, help us to follow our divine Forerunner, and to say, Father into thy hands I commend my spirit. Amen. ~ James Ferguson and Charles L. Wallis, eds. Prayers for Public Worship: A Service Book of Morning and Evening Prayers Following the Course of the Christian Year. NewYork: Harper & Brothers, 1958. p. 147.