Importance: 10%
The Big Idea
Quoted from J.M. Robinson On Substack link to Article
Holy Week unfolds with a very deliberate shape. Its shape is patterned after the original Creation Week of Genesis 1.
But its key is different.
If the first Creation Week was written in a bright major key full of rising life, light, and blessing, then Holy Week unfolds in a minor key. It is the unmaking of an old world and its remaking. Specifically, it is the de-creation of the Judaic age, the passing away of the old covenant cosmos to make way for the new.
Holy Week traces the contours of that original week, but in reverse, or rather through death and judgment toward resurrection and new creation.
Palm Sunday — Day One
The King enters His city. The Lord rides into Jerusalem, hailed as the Son of David, the rightful ruler of Israel. This corresponds to the first day of Creation, when the King of Heaven declared “Let there be light,” His royal word shining into the darkness. Jesus is the Light of the World entering the shadowed city of man.
Holy Monday — Day Two
Jesus cleanses the Temple, driving out the money changers. Just as God separated the waters above from the waters below on the second day, Jesus divides and purifies the sacred space of God’s house, separating what is holy from what is profane. The Temple, a microcosm of the world, is being judged and re-ordered.
Holy Tuesday — Day Three
Jesus curses the barren fig tree, a sign of fruitless Israel. He tells parables of vineyards, wedding feasts, and rejected sons. This mirrors the third day of Creation, when dry land appeared, and the earth brought forth seed-bearing plants and fruit trees. But here, the old creation tree is cursed; its time is over. A new fruitful people will arise.
Holy Wednesday — Day Four
Jesus enters into final conflict with the religious rulers, the false lights of the old world. He delivers the Olivet Discourse, prophesying the darkening of sun, moon, and stars; symbolic of Israel’s leaders losing their heavenly place. This corresponds to the fourth day of Creation, when God set the luminaries in the sky to govern day and night. But now these lights will fall.
Maundy Thursday — Day Five
Jesus prepares the Upper Room, celebrating Passover with His disciples; a covenant meal marking their deliverance and their new identity. He washes their feet. Day five of Creation saw the waters filled with life, teeming with creatures. So too, Jesus prepares His disciples to become fishers of men, soon to be filled with the Spirit and sent into the world.
Good Friday — Day Six
On the sixth day of Creation, God formed man from the dust and created the woman from his side. On Good Friday, the Son of Man is lifted up on the tree, the new Adam. He falls into the sleep of death. His side is pierced, and from it flows blood and water, the sacramental streams by which His Bride, the Church, will be born. Golgotha becomes a new Edenic mountain, the Tree of Death becoming the Tree of Life.
Holy Saturday — Day Seven
Just as God rested from His works on the Sabbath, so the body of Jesus rests in the tomb. The work of redemption is finished. The old world has been unmade.
Easter Sunday — Day One of a New Creation
But dawn breaks. The first day of a new Creation Week begins. In John 20, the echoes are unmistakable; a garden, a gardener, a woman, but no serpent. Christ is risen. The curse has been undone. The new world has begun.
This is why the Church worships on Sunday. It is not merely as a tradition, but as a profound theological act. The first Creation ended in Sabbath rest; the New Creation begins with resurrection glory.
The old world, the Judaic age with its temple, priesthood, and sacrifices, has passed away in judgment. But from its ruins rises the eternal Kingdom of Christ. We now live in the New Creation, where Christ reigns as King, Priest, and Prophet forever.
He makes all things new.