Family Holy Week DevotionalSample

READ TOGETHER

Today we celebrate Palm Sunday! On this day, when Jesus was alive over 2000 years ago, he and his disciples (a group of friends who wanted to follow and learn from him) were traveling to Jerusalem -- one of the most important cities in Israel. Many people were visiting Jerusalem at this time because they were all getting ready to celebrate Passover, an important Jewish festival, at the end of the week. 

Just outside of Jerusalem, Jesus stopped walking and asked two of his disciples to do something for him. It was kind of a strange request. Can you guess what he wanted them to do? He sent them to the next village and told them that they would find a donkey colt (a young donkey) tied up. He told them to untie the donkey and bring it to him! And he said if anyone asked they should just say, “The Lord needs it.” Can you imagine if you were the one who had to go looking for the donkey? You might wonder why Jesus asked you to do that, or if he really knew where the donkey was. Well, everything happened exactly as Jesus said it would!

The disciples brought Jesus the donkey, and put their coats on top so that he wouldn’t have to sit on its scratchy back. By this time, many people had gathered along the road to Jerusalem because they heard Jesus was coming. Even though people didn’t have TV or the news or internet back then, they had still heard about all of the amazing miracles Jesus had done and they wanted to see him too! They thought he was coming to be their new King.

The roads back then were all made of dirt and were very dusty, as you can imagine. Because the people wanted Jesus to be their new King, they wanted to give him the best treatment possible! They took off their coats and spread them on the road so that Jesus would not have to ride on the dirt. They also broke off palm branches and laid some on the road, and some people waved their palm leaves while shouting, “Hosanna!” and “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” Have you ever been to a parade? It was kind of like that!

The Pharisees, powerful Jewish leaders, did not like this happening because they did not believe that Jesus was the Son of God. They wanted Jesus to make all of the people stop worshipping him, but he told them that he could not. He even said that if the people didn’t shout out, the rocks would! Jesus was teaching us that he deserves all of our worship. He is our King! We should worship him with our words and our actions.

TALK TOGETHER

1 - What would you have thought if Jesus sent you to go find the donkey?

2 - What are some ways that our family can worship Jesus?

PRAY TOGETHER 

Dear God, thank you for reminding us that you deserve the best from us! We want to love you with all of our hearts and show you how much you mean to us. You created us, you love us, you sent your Son to save us! Help us to focus on Jesus this week. Help us learn more ways of worshipping you together as a family. We love you and we pray these things in Jesus’ name, amen.