In the dark of evening Jesus waits alone, knowing he is to suffer and die, anxious about exactly when or or what he will experience. His disciples are away from him, asleep and resting. He is anguished by the coming moment of betrayal, trial and death.
Today we are called on to wait. To hold before God our anguished souls. To lift and troubles and fears to him. To pray to our Father for release.
2. Jesus is betrayed:
Judas, one of those whom Jesus trusted most, one of his friends, comes forward to deliver him to the authorities. Disillusioned, or just greedy, Judas has decided that he will rid himself and the world of his troublesome leader. Jesus is betrayed by a kiss of peace.
How often do we betray those people and values that we hold most dear? How often do we do so under the cover of care? Today we pray that we may ever be faithful to Christ, not dissembling in our hearts, but true to our faith.
3. Jesus before the Sanhedrin:
The true High Priest appears before the earthly high priest to be judged by him. Jesus is inconvenient, a trouble maker, a man of no account to him. Why should he not be put to death to appease the Romans and save his own political position.
God appears before his priests, but they do not recognise him. Instead they have turned their back on God seeking to use his temple to prop up their own power and profit as had Eli’s sons of old. We pray for our church that we may never seek to use our religion as a cover for seeking our own gain.
4. Peter denies Jesus:
Even the one who protested that he would never betray his Lord now does so. The shepherd has been struck, and so the sheep scatter. Jesus is left alone with no one to defend him.
How easy it is for us to flee from persecution. Too proud for our own good, we seek to make our faith look acceptable, excusing ourselves for denying what we truly believe in public. Today we pray that we may ever be faithful to Christ.
5. Jesus is judged by Pilate:
The Governor sees yet another foreign peasant dragged before him, accused by his own people of insurrection. Jesus is to be a pawn as Pilate works the crowd to get the answer he wants from what he regards as a rebellious and tiresome nation: we have no king but ceasar.
How often are we simply indifferent to justice. We have no more concern or mercy than Pilate did. We are unjust, and when challenged with evil simply collude with it. May we in our lives seek to live justly and do right.
6. Jesus is scourged and crowned with thorns:
Jesus is stripped and beaten with rods and whips that bruise and cut his flesh. He is torn apart. There he stands humiliated and in agony, taunted as a cruel mocking crown is placed on his head.
How many of Christ’s followers, from the early martyrs to our own day, have been similarly treated, and yet are we ready to stand and suffer persecution for our faith in him? It is for our evils that he suffered such pain, and we confess our sorrow at ever offending God so much.
7. Jesus carries the cross:
Even though he is now so weak after his beating that it is hard for him to stand, yet the great weight of a wooden bar is laid upon him. He will carry his own instrument of suffering and death to his place of execution.
The weight of the cross is more than any physical weight. It is the weight that is laid upon the Son of God as he takes upon him the sins that we have committed and brings about our reconciliation with God.
8. Simon of Cyrene helps to carry the cross:
Jesus falls under the weight of the cross. The heat of the day is already beginning to beat down on the wearied Jesus, and he cannot stand up. The soldiers force him to his feet, but realise that they need to move him along, so they compel a bystander to carry the cross.
Although Christ is divine, yet he is also fully human. Instead of choosing to save himself, he allows himself to be weakened to show that his disciples also should live in humility. Simon therefore takes up the cross as all Christ’s disciples are called to do, and follow in Christ’s steps.
9. Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem:
A few days before crowds thronged to greet Christ in triumph, now they meet him in sorrow. What will become of them after the one in whom they trusted has been put to death?
Jesus, how often do we meet you in sorrow, worrying about the things we have done that have caused you such pain. May we resolve to do rightly, live justly and be your people once again.
10. Jesus is crucified:
At last they come to the spot. They hold Jesus down and hammer the nails into the wood through his flesh and bone. They lift him up and gaze upon him, and he struggles in pain for his breath.
What a terrible death to die, and yet God comes into his world freely to do this thing for us. He pays the price of his own justice, and demonstrates the depth of his love for us.
11. The penitent thief:
One of those crucified with Jesus rails at him in his agony feeling that all is lost, but the other looks upon Jesus in sorrow and asks that his sins be forgiven.
How often in life do we despair? How often do we simply get angry when we feel that life has not gone our way? Yet you call us back to remember that we are forgiven and that our final destiny is to be with you.
12. Jesus with his mother and St John:
Mary looks with horror on the child she bore and brought up, as he gasps, dying on the cross. John looks on the teacher that he has followed to the end. Sorrow fills their hearts. Yet Christ even now shows his care for them by entrusting them to each other’s care.
We too feel such sorrow as we gaze upon the dying Christ, but Christ even now shows his great love for us by telling us that we should care for one another as a church. ‘Love one another, as I have loved you.’
13. Jesus dies on the cross:
Sensing that all has been fulfilled, Christ cries out to God the Father and gives up his spirit. The veil of the temple is rent in two. The old order of separation of man from God is over. We are now all reconciled to God.
In that moment two thousand years ago, the Son of God bore our sins on the tree. He paid the price that was ours to pay. We now look upon God as his adopted children, trusting in his loving care.
14. Jesus is laid in the tomb:
The body is now pulled off the cross and hurried away before the new day begins. His disciples give it the care that it never had in the last hours of life. They weep and are in despair, yet to remember Christ’s words about the third day.
Christ’s dead body is our dead body. The things we have done are worthy of death, and yet we live. He has taken death into himself to conquer its power over us.
15. Jesus rises from the dead:
On that morning the tomb is empty. The body is gone. Has it been snatched or stolen away? In the darkness the men in white tell the disciples that he is not here. A man approaches Mary and asks whom she seeks. In her tears she cannot see that it is him.
Christ has broken death itself, and calls us to live his risen life. Like Mary, we are called not to hold on to the past, but to reach out to a new future of life and peace with God.
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