This year, our calendar matches closely to the Hebrew calendar and the Bible record. It was this week that Jesus celebrated the Passover meal with His disciples in the upper room and had a final teaching time with them known as the Upper Room Discourse recorded in John’s Gospel. He spent time in prayer with them. He washed their feet. He instituted a practice of worship in remembering the sacrifice that He was about to make for the sins of mankind, to be observed by those who have received it for their salvation from their sins. It was this week over two thousand years ago that the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross as God’s sacrifice for our sins and then was buried in death for us. He took the separation from the Father for our sins for us so that through Him we can have union with the Holy God of eternity for eternity. It was next Sunday morning, over two thousand years ago, that Jesus Christ won our eternal victory over death, sin, and the grave to give all who will trust in Him as their Saviour His eternal life. This is why this week is commonly declared as Holy Week because so much of what makes us holy in Christ occurred this week through our Saviour. I challenge you to take some time this week to truly think about the significance of this week in history. Meditate on the amazing work Jesus did for us this week so long ago. Tell people about the difference in what happened this week by Jesus then can eternally change their lives now. This week, celebrate the events that took place in our Saviour’s earthly ministry for our benefit in very real and worshipful ways. Praise God for the wonderful blessing of His redemption that He made available to whosoever through His Son alone. Passover means sacrifice, because there was a death involved in the event of the Old Testament when it began in Exodus 12:11 for the Jewish people and there was a death involved in the New Testament when it was accomplished for all people as recorded in the four Gospels. Passover means exemption, because in the Old Testament the families who obeyed God’s provision by faith and sacrificed the lamb, applied the blood to the house, and ate the meal were exempt from the death angel bringing death to their home. For us, in this period of history, because of Jesus’s death, if we receive Him as our Saviour by faith, trusting in His shed blood to be applied to our sin debt, in obedience to God’s provision of His only begotten Son for our sin, then we can be exempt from the second death, eternal death. What a wonderful reality!