Bible Verses for Holy Week and Easter (2025)

Looking for Bible verses for Holy Week and Easter? Here are portions of Scripture to help focus your reading and help you walk with Jesus through each day of Holy Week. For each day, we’ll provide a key verse or two in a variety of translations (you can click into the verse to read it in your preferred version), and links to read the entire passage in each Gospel.

Are you a pastor? (Or someone interested in traditional Christianity?) We’ll also provide links to the associated Lectionary passages for Year C (2025). (For those who aren’t familiar, the Lectionary are daily Bible readings that follow the church liturgical year. They’re used by most traditional Protestant denominations and Catholics.) Don’t forget: Bible Gateway offers Lectionary reading plans delivered daily straight to your inbox in your favorite translation.

Palm Sunday

Key Verse:

The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,
“Hosanna!”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Blessed is the king of Israel!”
— John 12:12-13 (NIV)

Gospel Passages: Matthew 21:1-11; Mark 11:1-11; Luke 19:29-40; John 12:12-19

Lectionary: Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29; Luke 19:28-40

Holy Monday and Holy Tuesday

Key Verses:

And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.
— Mark 12:29-31 (KJV)

When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he told his disciples, “You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.”
— Matthew 26:1-2 (NET)

Gospel Passages: Matthew 21:12-26:13; Mark 11:12-14:9; Luke 19:41-21:38; John 12:20-50

Lectionary:

• Holy Monday: Isaiah 42:1-9; Psalm 36:5-11; Hebrews 9:11-15; John 12:1-11
• Holy Tuesday: Isaiah 49:1-7; Psalm 71:1-14; 1 Corinthians 1:18-31; John 12:20-36

Spy Wednesday

Key Verse:

Then one of the twelve, named Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What are you willing to give me to betray Him to you?” And they set out for him thirty pieces of silver.
— Matthew 26:14-15 (NASB)

Gospel Passages: Matthew 26:14-16; Mark 14:10-11; Luke 22:1-6

Lectionary: Isaiah 50:4-9; Psalm 70; Hebrews 12:1-3; John 13:21-32

Maundy Thursday

Key Verses:

After taking the bread and giving thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, he took the cup after the meal and said, “This cup is the new covenant by my blood, which is poured out for you.”
— Luke 22:19-20 (CEB)

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
— John 13:34-35 (ESV)

Gospel Passages: Matthew 26:17-46; Mark 14:12-42; Luke 22:7-46; John 13:1-17:26

Lectionary: Exodus 12:1-14; Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-17, 31-35

Good Friday

Key Verses:

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
    Why are you so far from saving me,
    so far from my cries of anguish?
…
They divide my clothes among them
    and cast lots for my garment.
— Psalm 22:1, 18 (NIV)

And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments.
— Luke 23:33-34 (ESV)

And about three o’clock Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” … Then Jesus cried again with a loud voice and breathed his last.
— Matthew 27:46, 50 (NRSVUE)

Joseph bought a long sheet of linen cloth. Then he took Jesus’ body down from the cross, wrapped it in the cloth, and laid it in a tomb that had been carved out of the rock. Then he rolled a stone in front of the entrance.
— Mark 15:46 (NLT)

Gospel Passages: Matthew 26:47-27:61; Mark 14:43-15:47; Luke 22:47-23:56; John 18:1-19:42

Lectionary: Isaiah 52:13-53:12; Psalm 22; Hebrews 10:16-25 or Hebrews 4:14-16, 5:7-9; John 18:1-19:42

Holy Saturday

Key Verse:

And the women who had come with Him from Galilee followed after, and they observed the tomb and how His body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and fragrant oils. And they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment.
— Luke 23:55-56 (NKJV)

Gospel Passages: Matthew 27:62-66

Lectionary: Job 14:1-14 or Lamentations 3:1-9, 19-24; Psalm 31:1-4, 15-16; 1 Peter 4:1-8; Matthew 27:57-66 or John 19:38-42

Easter Sunday

Key Verses:

Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”

Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).

Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.

— John 20:11-18 (NIV)

Gospel Passages: Matthew 28:1-10; Mark 16:1-8; Luke 24:1-12; John 20:1-18

Lectionary:

• Acts 10:34-43 or Isaiah 65:17-25
• Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
• 1 Corinthians 15:19-26 or Acts 10:34-43
• John 20:1-18 or Luke 24:1-12

He Is Risen!

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
— 1 Corinthians 1:18 (NKJV)

For you were called to this, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. He did not commit sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth; [Is. 53:9] when he was insulted, he did not insult in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten but entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree; so that, having died to sins, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed [Is. 53:5].
— 1 Peter 2:21-24 (CSB)

I am about to do a new thing;
    now it springs forth; do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
    and rivers in the desert.
— Isaiah 43:19 (NRSVUE)

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