A Scripture Reading Guide for Easter: 40 Days of Remembrance

We celebrate communion, the partaking of the bread and the cup, in remembrance of the bodily death of Jesus on the cross. The God with us, God in human flesh, ultimately came to be our substitute in death, death on a Roman cross. This death in our place, taking our punishment, as the wages of sin is death. Jesus absorbed our sins on the cross. Jesus is the perfect sacrifice which takes away the sin of the world. But the story does not end there. Death claimed the one it could not keep. Death claimed the one it had no right to claim. There is resurrection. The work of Jesus, all he taught and all he did, was affirmed by God is his resurrection. It is the first fruit, our example for those who follow him, of what is to come. 

In this daily reading, each day is a passage of scripture that points us to Jesus, the cross, and his resurrection.  Beginning the second week of March, each Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are the arrest, crucifixion, burial, and resurrection stories of the Gospels. These Sundays are the Resurrection Story as we celebrate the Risen Savior each Sunday. The Passion Week is broken down into the events of that week. 

May we stand in the fullness, now and in what is come, of what Christ has done for us. For in him we say, “Where, oh death, is your victory? Where, oh death, is your sting?”  We proclaim that Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again. For “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.”

Wednesday March 4   1 Corinthians 15:1-4
March 5   John 3:14-21
March 6   John 1:29-34
March 7   1 Corinthians 1:18-25
Sunday March 8   Colossians 1:15-20

March 9   Romans 5:6-19
March 10   Hebrews 9:11-28
March 11   1 Thessalonians 4:13-14
March 12   Mark 14:1-15:20
March 13   Mark 15:21-41
March 14   Mark 15:42-47
Sunday March 15   Mark 16:1-20

March 16   Romans 3:21-26
March 17   Ephesians 1:3-10
March18   1 Peter 2:22-25
March19   Luke 22:1-23:25
March 20   Luke 23:26-49
March 21   Luke 23:50-56
Sunday March 22   Luke 24:1-35

March 23   Acts 2:22-36
March 24   Romans 4:25
March 25   John 11:25
March 26   John 18:1-19:16
March 27   John 19:17-37
March 28   John 19:38-42
Sunday March 29   John 20:1-31

March 30 1   Corinthians 15:12-58
March 31   Zechariah 12:10-13:1
April 1   Isaiah 53
April 2   Psalm 22
April 3   Philippians 2:5-11
April 4   Zechariah 9:9-12

Events of the Passion Week:
Palm Sunday April 5   Matthew 21:1-11 The Triumphal Entry 
Monday April 6   Matthew 21:12-22
Tuesday April 7   Matthew 21:23-26:5
Wednesday April 8   Matthew 26:6-16
Thursday April 9   Matthew 26:17-75
Good Friday April 10   Matthew 27:1-61
Holy Saturday April 11   Matthew 27:62-66
Easter April 12   Matthew 28:1-20 The Resurrection

Anthem:
Revelation 5:1-14
Revelation 12:1-11
Revelation 21:1-7