A Soundtrack for Holy Week

Holy Week is a journey through the full range of human experience—hope and hype, protest and pressure, intimacy and betrayal, grief, silence, and the fragile beginnings of new life. Contemporary secular songs, at their best, inhabit that same terrain.

Every year I look for a different way to guide my personal observance of this time - this time I compiled a playlist. What songs would you choose?

Palm Sunday — Arrival, Expectation, Misreading

Gospel: “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!” (Matthew 21)
Song: “All These Things I’ve Done” – The Killers
Lyric: “I’ve got soul, but I’m not a soldier.”
Question: Where am I caught up in a story I don’t understand?

Holy Monday — Disruption, Turning Tables

Gospel: “He overturned the tables of the money-changers…” (Matthew 21)
Song: “Take Me To Church” – Hozier
Lyric: “Every Sunday’s getting more bleak, a fresh poison each week.”
Question: Are there contradictory parts in my religious life?

Holy Tuesday — Truth, Tension, Confrontation

Gospel: “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.” (Matthew 21)
Song: “Waiting on the World to Change” – John Mayer
Lyric: “We keep on waiting… waiting on the world to change.”
Question: Do I avoid difficult truths by deferring responsibility?

Holy Wednesday — Betrayal, Complicity, Quiet Deals

Gospel: “What will you give me if I betray him to you?” (Matthew 26)
Song: “Running to Stand Still” – U2
Lyric: “She’s running to stand still.”
Question: Am I complicit in things I claim to oppose?

Maundy Thursday — Love, Vulnerability, Farewell

Gospel: “As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13)
Song: “Make You Feel My Love” – Adele
Lyric: “Nothing that I wouldn’t do, go to the ends of the earth for you.”
Question: Do I love vulnerably?

Good Friday — Loss, Violence, Cost

Gospel: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27)
Song: “Skinny Love” – Bon Iver
Lyric: “Now all your love is wasted.”
Question: What must I face that cannot be fixed?

Holy Saturday — Silence, Waiting, In-Between

Gospel: “They went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone.” (Matthew 27)
Song: “The Stable Song” – Gregory Alan Isakov
Lyric: “Turn these diamonds straight back into coal.”
Question: Should I stay in spaces where nothing seems to be happening?

Easter Day — New Life, Disorientation, Beginning Again

Gospel: “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee.” (Matthew 28)
Song: “Upside Down” – Jack Johnson
Lyric: “Who’s to say what’s impossible?”
Question: What might I try if I weren't afraid?