A Short Chronology of Holy Week

Easter is a moveable feast, and falls on a different date each year, but it's always Sunday. Easter is set for the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. It often coincides with Passover, which is based on the Hebrew calendar. Holy Week is the last week of Jesus' earthly life. We track it during the week before Easter, to commemorate the crucial events leading up to the crucifixion and resurrection. The writers of the four gospels reconstructed Jesus' actions in different ways, listing them by importance or theme or chronology. However, the events of Holy Week are thoroughly detailed in each of the four books, and agree completely on the sequence of events, even though they were written much later. It was an experience none of them ever forgot.

In 2026, Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday on March 29th and concludes with Easter Sunday on April 5th. Let's take a look at what happened on each of those days during Passover week nearly 2000 years ago.

On the date we call Palm Sunday, Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem, riding on a donkey as the prophesy foretold. The large crowd of His disciples followed, chanting "Hosanna to the Son of David; Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest!” (Matthew 21:1-11) People in Jerusalem who had heard about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead came out to greet him (John 12: 17-19). The Pharisees rebuked Him for the noise, but Jesus said, “I tell you, if these stop speaking, the stones will cry out!” (Luke 19: 39-40)

Jesus and his disciples were staying in Bethany, about two miles from Jerusalem. On Monday, they again went into Jerusalem and to the temple, where Jesus found that moneychangers and vendors were set up on the temple grounds. Angry, he overturned their tables because they had turned a house of prayer into a den of thieves (Mark 11: 15–19). He also healed people and confronted the chief priests and scribes. This was also the day that Jesus cursed a fig tree that did not bear fruit (Matthew 21: 18–22).

On Tuesday, Jesus was again confronted by the temple priests, who pose a series of questions designed to make Jesus say something they could consider blasphemous or else turn the crowd against him. Jesus deftly answered each question truthfully, but not in the way they expected (Luke 20:1–45). Afterward, Jesus went up on the Mount of Olives, where he preached to his disciples about what will come in the future up to the end of days (Mark 13). This speech is called the Olivet Discourse. Jesus warned his disciples to stay alert, because no one knows when that will be. "But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone."

Jesus did not go into Jerusalem on Wednesday. It is believed this was the day he visited Simon the Leper in Bethany. During that visit, a woman came to Jesus and anointed his feet with expensive perfume. When the disciples objected because the cost of it could have fed the poor, He reminded them that the poor with always be with us, but this woman was anointing Him for burial (Mark 14: 3-10). Sometime during these events, Judas Iscariot slipped away and offered to deliver Jesus to the chief priests for a price (Matthew 26: 14-16). This was done in secret. The apostles were not aware of Judas' betrayal until it happened, and none of them spoke to him after it happened.

Thursday, now called Maundy Thursday, is when Jesus held a Seder with his inner circle of 12 disciples at the event we call the Last Supper. Jesus shared bread with each of them, calling it His body, which would be broken for them, and the wine, which was to be his blood which is shed for them. "Do this in remembrance of Me." He also predicted that one of the 12 would betray Him (Luke 22: 14-23). The many things Jesus told them at the supper are related in John chapters 13-16. After dinner, they went to the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus prayed, and his companions fell asleep. Then the temple authorities showed up and arrested Jesus after Judas identified Him with a kiss (Matthew 26: 47-50).

Friday, called Good Friday, was the day Jesus was tried, tortured, executed by crucifixion, and buried. These events are recalled in excruciating detail in Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23, John 18: 28-40, and John 19.

Saturday, Pilate sent a detail to make sure Jesus' tomb was well sealed and set guards to watch it, lest the disciples steal the body and claim He has risen (Matthew 27: 62-66).

But despite the precautions, Jesus escaped the tomb early on Sunday, now called Easter or Resurrection Day. Mary Magdalene and other women disciples went to the tomb to anoint Jesus' body with spices, and found the stone rolled away, the guards fainted over from fright, and an angel telling them that He is risen! Jesus was not there, so Mary went to tell the others, and ran into Jesus on the way. Over the next 40 days, Jesus appeared and spoke to his disciples to assure them that yes, He had risen from the grave just as he said he would (Matthew 28: 1-13, and in all the other gospels).