THE ARREST (Backcester Lane - top of The Three Spires Shopping Centre)
While he was still speaking a crowd came up, and the man who was called Judas, one of the Twelve, was leading them. He approached Jesus to kiss him, but Jesus asked him, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?”
When Jesus’ followers saw what was going to happen, they said, “Lord, should we strike with our swords?” And one of them struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his right ear.
But Jesus answered, “No more of this!” And he touched the man’s ear and healed him.
Then Jesus said to the chief priests, the officers of the temple guard, and the elders, who had come for him, “Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come with swords and clubs? Every day I was with you in the temple courts, and you did not lay a hand on me. But this is your hour—when darkness reigns.”
(Luke 22:47 – 53)
Loving God, today,
in remembrance and awe,
we tread the holy ground of Calvary:
this place of abandonment
that has become the scene of our adoration,
this place of suffering that has become the source of our peace,
this place of violence
that has become the battlefield
on which love is victorious.
Merciful God,
as we relive the events of this day,
it is with awe that we count again the cost of our salvation.
Words cannot be found
to express our thanksgiving.
Accept our adoration;
in Jesus’ name. Amen.
THERE IS A GREEN HILL FAR AWAY
without a city wall,
where the dear Lord was crucified,
who died to save ua all
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.
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.
There was no other good enough,
to pay the price of sin;
he only could unlock the gate
of heaven and let us in.
Oh 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 (1818-95)
THE TRIAL (outside the Guildhall, the former courthouse)
At daybreak the council of the elders of the people, both the chief priests and the teachers of the law, met together, and Jesus was led before them. “If you are the Messiah,” they said, “tell us.”
Jesus answered, “If I tell you, you will not believe me, and if I asked you, you would not answer. But from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God.”
They all asked, “Are you then the Son of God?”
He replied, “You say that I am.”
Then they said, “Why do we need any more testimony? We have heard it from his own lips.”
Then the whole assembly rose and led him off to Pilate. And they began to accuse him, saying, “We have found this man subverting our nation. He opposes payment of taxes to Caesar and claims to be Messiah, a king.”
So Pilate asked Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?”
“You have said so,” Jesus replied.
Then Pilate announced to the chief priests and the crowd, “I find no basis for a charge against this man.”
But they insisted, “He stirs up the people all over Judea by his teaching. He started in Galilee and has come all the way here.”
On hearing this, Pilate asked if the man was a Galilean. When he learned that Jesus was under Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at that time.
(Luke 22:66 — 23:7)
God, when we choose the way of violence,
responding to terror with aggression and striking back in hatred and revenge:
Forgive us, and help us to choose the way of the cross.
God, when we collude with injustice,
accepting as inevitable the ways of the world and refusing to stand for your truth:
Forgive us, and help us to choose the way of the cross.
God, when we betray our deepest ideals,
taking the safer step of compromise and turning away from integrity:
Forgive us, and help us to choose the way of the cross.
God, who met evil with love, lies with truth,
and collusion with integrity, help us to choose your way.
Help us to choose the way of the cross. Amen.
MY SONG IS LOVE UNKNOWN,
My Saviour’s love to me:
Love to the loveless shown,
That they might lovely be.
O who am I, that for my sake
My Lord should take frail flesh and die?
Sometimes they strew His way,
And His sweet praises sing;
Resounding all the day
Hosannas to their King:
Then ‘Crucify!’ is all their breath,
And for His death they thirst and cry.
They rise and needs will have
My dear Lord made away;
A murderer they save,
The Prince of life they slay,
Yet cheerful He to suffering goes,
That He His foes from thence might free.
Samuel Crossman (1624-1683)
THE CRUCIFIXION (on the corner of Bore Street and Bird Street, at the edge of the city)
As the soldiers led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. A large number of people followed him,
including women who mourned and wailed for him. Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ Then
“‘they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!”
and to the hills, “Cover us!”’
For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”
Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.
The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.”
The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.”
There was a written notice above him, which read: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS .
(Luke 23:26-38)
WE KEEP SILENCE
WERE YOU THERE WHEN THEY CRUCIFIED MY LORD?
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Oh sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble;
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Were you there when they nailled Him to the tree?.............
Were you there when they laid Him in the tomb?.............
Were you there when the stone was rolled away?.............
Traditional
DEATH (outside Dr Johnson’s Birthplace Museum, a reminder of The Word)
It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last.
The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, “Surely this was a righteous man.” When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breast and went away. But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.
(Luke 23:44 – 49)
This grace we have been given is enough.
When the mountains set before us
won’t move by faith
until by faith we start to climb,
it is enough.
When our cry for heaven’s miracles rings hollow,
like a doorbell howling in an empty house,
it is enough.
When from our waiting rooms of weakness
we say yes to pressing on,
it is enough.
When we have reached the end of our energies
and face the end of ourselves
but can’t yet see the end of the task,
it is enough.
Enough
to know that you have loved us.
Enough
that we are called before all time.
Enough
that every fingerprint is valued.
Enough
that you remember every name.
So we will embrace this grace
and turn our hearts to face grace.
Loosening the locks on our personal space,
we’ll make each home a place of grace.
We’ll drink from your wells
‘til we’re wasted on grace;
we’ll speak out your words
‘til our tongues taste of grace.
And we’ll live to love your laws
until our lives are laced with grace.
Down dark and dingy alleys
we will chase grace.
We will hold as something precious
every trace of grace.
We will celebrate and consecrate this grace,
because this grace we have been given is enough.
Gerard Kelly Spoken Worship Zondervan © 2007
WHEN I SURVEY THE WONDROUS CROSS
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.
Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God:
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.
See from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down:
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?
Were the whole realm of Nature mine,
That were an offering far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all!
Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
Bible readings taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®
©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Prayers and Responses taken from: Gathering For Worship© The Baptist Union of Great Britain 2005,
Still Praying: URC Prayer Handbook 2011© 2010 The United Reformed Church &
Holy Week Services published by SPCK @ 1971, 1983 The Joint Liturgical Group
Jesus dies on the cross taken from Prayers of Life by Michael Quoist. Translated by Anne Marie de
Commaile & Agnes Mitchell Forsyth c. 1963 Sheed & Ward Inc Published by Logos Books
Songs reproduced under CCLI licence No.1335