Today's Service: Good Friday
PREPARATION
Find a Palm Cross from last year if you have one, or make a simple cross for yourself with, for example, two pencils and some string or Sellotape.
Sit quietly for a few moments looking at the cross and settle your mind.
Approach the events of that first Good Friday as you read or sing the very familiar hymn, 'There is a green hill far away'
Hymn: There is a green hill far away
tune: Horsley (with intro.)
1 There is a green hill far away,
outside a city wall,
where the dear Lord was crucified,
who died to save us all.
2 We may not know, we cannot tell,
what pains he had to bear,
but we believe it was for us
he hung and suffered there.
3 He died that we might be forgiven,
he died to make us good,
that we might go at last to heaven,
saved by his precious blood.
4 O dearly, dearly has he loved,
and we must love him too,
and trust in his redeeming blood,
and try his works to do.
Cecil Frances Alexander (née Humphreys) (1818-1895)
Reading: John 19: 1 - 18, 28 - 30 (NRSV)
1 Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. 2And the soldiers wove a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they dressed him in a purple robe. 3They kept coming up to him, saying, 'Hail, King of the Jews!' and striking him on the face. 4Pilate went out again and said to them, 'Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no case against him.'5 So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, 'Here is the man!' 6 When the chief priests and the police saw him, they shouted, 'Crucify him! Crucify him!' Pilate said to them, 'Take him yourselves and crucify him; I find no case against him.' 7 The Jews answered him, 'We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has claimed to be the Son of God.'
8 Now when Pilate heard this, he was more afraid than ever. 9He entered his headquarters again and asked Jesus, 'Where are you from?' But Jesus gave him no answer. 10 Pilate therefore said to him, 'Do you refuse to speak to me? Do you not know that I have power to release you, and power to crucify you?' 11 Jesus answered him, 'You would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above; therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.' 12 From then on Pilate tried to release him, but the Jews cried out, 'If you release this man, you are no friend of the emperor. Everyone who claims to be a king sets himself against the emperor.'
13 When Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus outside and sat on the judge's bench at a place called The Stone Pavement, or in Hebrew Gabbatha. 14 Now it was the day of Preparation for the Passover; and it was about noon. He said to the Jews, 'Here is your King!' 15 They cried out, 'Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him!' Pilate asked them, 'Shall I crucify your King?' The chief priests answered, 'We have no king but the emperor.' 16 Then he handed him over to them to be crucified.
So they took Jesus; 17 and carrying the cross by himself, he went out to what is called The Place of the Skull, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha. 18 There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, with Jesus between them.
28 After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in order to fulfil the scripture), 'I am thirsty.' 29 A jar full of sour wine was standing there. So they put a sponge full of the wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth. 30When Jesus had received the wine, he said, 'It is finished.' Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
Reflection
This is such a human story. There has been plotting to get rid of a man who dared challenge the position of the rulers and leaders. There's the taunting by the soldiers, and the baying of the crowd led by those most threatened by Jesus. There's the incomprehension of Pilate and his powerlessness in the face of the crowd. Try as he might to release an innocent man, he can't stand against the crowd.
This is such a human story as we reflect on the experience for Jesus. Unjustly brought to trial. Turned against by a fickle people, a lone stand against the injustice of the world. Rejected. Dejected. Totally isolated to face this final suffering completely on his own. This, the culmination of his life, his work, his faithfulness: 'It is finished!'
Yet, it's also such a divine story. A story which began in Creation and continued through God's interaction with his people. A story which climaxed in Jesus' own story from the stable crib to the Golgotha, the story of God incarnate, of total faithfulness to God's life-giving way - selfless love without limit.
And it is a story that has not ended, despite the apparent conclusion of this reading. The human story of injustice, greed, selfishness and arrogance continue. The divine story continues in every selfless act and every faithful life lived by the calling of God to be his people.
PRAYER (including verses from Isaiah chapter 53 verses 3 and 6)
3 He was despised and rejected by others;
a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity;
and as one from whom others hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him of no account.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have all turned to our own way,
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
Forgive us, Lord,
when we have turned away;
when we have thought your way too hard;
when we have taken the easy way,
the way of comfort, the way of least resistance.
Forgive us, Lord,
when we have followed the crowd,
kept quiet for fear of standing out;
or joined in their shouting when we know they are wrong.
Forgive us, Lord,
and help us see this day as a day of hope and promise
because you have never deserted us
and call again ‘Follow me!’ Amen.
The Lord's Prayer
Our Father, which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come,
Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, The power, and the glory, For ever and ever. Amen
We close with three verses of the hymn 'O sacred head! sore wounded'
Hymn: O sacred head! sore wounded
tune: Passion Chorale, with long intro.
1 O sacred head! sore wounded,
with grief and shame bowed down,
O Kingly Head, surrounded
with thorns, thine only crown!
How pale art thou with anguish,
with sore abuse and scorn!
How does that face now languish,
which once was bright as morn!
2 O Lord of life and glory,
what bliss till now was thine!
I read the wondrous story,
I joy to call thee mine.
Thy grief and bitter Passion
were all for sinners' gain;
mine, mine was the transgression
but thine the deadly pain.
3 What language shall I borrow
to praise thee, heavenly friend,
for this, thy dying sorrow,
thy pity without end?
O make me thine for ever;
and should I fainting be;
Lord, let me never, never
outlive my love to thee!
Paulus Gerhardt (1607-1676), translated by James Waddell Alexander (1804-1859)
THE GRACE
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit is with us all now and for evermore. Amen.