Understanding the Cross: A Home-Based Holy Week Devotional on Jesus’ “Seven Last Words”

The cross is everywhere: inside sanctuaries and atop church steeples, in jewelry and art, tattoos and logos, billboards and graffiti.

But what does the cross actually mean? How should we understand it?

In this devotional, we explore seven ways of looking at the cross, using as points of entry Jesus’ traditional “seven last words.” Taken together, these different lines of sight create a complementary whole, as well as a reminder that there is no single “right answer” to what the cross means for us today. To approach the cross is to embark upon a lifetime of contemplation and struggle, inquiry and insight, wonder and praise.

Each day of the week, Sunday to Saturday, includes simple devotional service: a biblical reading, a reflection, and an opening and closing prayer. A circle of candles (tealights, for example) is extinguished, one by one, as we approach Good Friday - and the empty tomb of Easter morning.

Files: This listing is for a downloadable PDF printable on 8.5 x 11 paper, an e-reader version, a printable version, and printing instructions. Please note: you will not receive a physical product as this is a digital download. At time of purchase you will receive a link, and will have 24 hours to download the files. We recommend downloading onto a laptop or desktop, not a tablet, since they are sometimes finicky with downloads. Once you download the files, you can easily transfer them to a tablet if you wish.

"Holy Week Tenebrae: A Home-Based Devotional" is for congregational use only, which means it may not be reproduced commercially, duplicated beyond the size of congregational license purchased, or resold :)