Gathering
Congregational Song: “Lift High the Cross!” Kitchin and Newbolt
Call to Worship
Jesus said:
I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.
Just as I have loved you,
you also should love one another.
On this day
Christ the Lamb of God gave himself
into the hands of those who would slay him.
On this day
Christ gathered with his disciples in the upper room.
On this day
Christ took a towel and washed the disciples’ feet,
giving us an example that we should do to others
as he has done to us.
On this day
Christ our God gave us the holy feast,
that we who eat this bread
and drink this cup
may here proclaim his holy sacrifice
and be partakers of his resurrection,
and at the last day may reign with him in heaven.
—Reprinted by permission from p. 269 of the Book of Common Worship, © 2018 Westminster John Knox Press. All rights reserved.
Opening Congregational Song: “Here Is Love” Rees and Edwards
The Anointing at Bethany by Mary
[Suggested Image for Projection: tinyurl.com/MaryKneels]
Scripture Reading
Speaker: Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected.
Judas: “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.”
Speaker: He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.
Jesus: “Leave her alone. It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”
—adapted from John 12:1–8
Choir: “Blest Are the Eyes That Have Not Seen You” Gramann, ECS Publishing
Alternative Congregational Song: “O Jesus, I Have Promised” Bode
Jesus Weeps for Jerusalem
[Suggested Image for Projection: bcartfarm.com/pp91.html]
Scripture Reading
Speaker: As Jesus approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said,
Jesus: “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.
—adapted from Luke 19:41–44
Congregational Song: “All Who Are Thirsty” Perry
Jesus at the Temple
[Suggested Image for Projection: tinyurl.com/ChristOverturns]
Scripture Reading
Speaker: When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was thrown into an uproar and asked,
Group 1: “Who is this?”
Group 2: “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”
Speaker: Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves.
Jesus: “It is written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’”
Speaker: The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant.
Groups 1&2: “Do you hear what these children are saying?”
Jesus: “Yes, have you never read, ‘From the lips of children and infants you, Lord, have called forth your praise’?”
—adapted from Matthew 21:10–16
Congregational Song: “Palms to Passion” sung to ST. THOMAS, 6.6.8.6
The Savior rode a colt
into Jerusalem.
With palms and cloaks they lined his way
with shouts to welcome him.
Bless is the One who comes:
Hosanna, David’s son.
A King to set us free is here:
fulfillment has begun.
Ahead the darkness lurks,
a cross only One could see.
Help us, your church, to show this cross
and share its great mercy.
— © Green Spring Presbyterian Church, Lent 2015. Used by Permission. Permission is given for this text to be used in the context of worship.
Jesus’ Authority Challenged
[Suggested Image for Projection: tinyurl.com/ChristAccused]
Scripture Reading
Speaker: Jesus entered the temple courts, and, while he was teaching, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him.
Group 1: “By what authority are you doing these things?”
Group 2: “And who gave you this authority?”
Jesus: “I will also ask you one question. If you answer me, I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. John’s baptism—where did it come from? Was it from heaven, or of human origin?”
Speaker: They discussed it among themselves.
Group 1: “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’”
Group 2: “But if we say, ‘Of human origin’—we are afraid of the people, for they all hold that John was a prophet.”
Speaker: So they answered Jesus,
Groups 1&2: “We don’t know.”
Jesus: “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”
—adapted from Matthew 21:23–27
Congregational Song: “Ah, Holy Jesus” Heermann and Bridges
The Plot to Kill Jesus
[Suggested Image for Projection: tinyurl.com/ConspiringAgainstJesus]
Scripture Reading
Speaker: Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin.
Group 1: “What are we accomplishing? Here is this man performing many signs.”
Group 2: “If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him.”
Groups 1&2: “Then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.”
Speaker: Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up.
Caiaphas: “You know nothing at all! You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”
Speaker: He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one. So from that day they plotted to take his life.
—adapted from John 11:47–53
Congregational Song: “What Wondrous Love Is This” Anon
The Passover
[Suggested Image for Projection: tinyurl.com/LastSupper-Syria]
Scripture Reading
Speaker: On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb, Jesus’ disciples asked him,
Groups 1&2: “Where do you want us to go and make preparations for you to eat the Passover?”
Speaker: So he sent two of his disciples.
Jesus: “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him. Say to the owner of the house he enters, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ He will show you a large room upstairs, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.
Speaker: The disciples left, went into the city and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.
—adapted from Mark 14:12–17
Choir: “Jesus, the Very Thought of Thee” Englert, Coronet Press
Alternative Congregational Song: “An Upper Room Did Our Lord Prepare” Green
Communion
Pastor: When evening came, Jesus arrived with the Twelve.
He said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.”
After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among you. For I tell you I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”
And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”
In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.”
—adapted from Luke 22:15–20
Congregational Songs: [Some or all of the following can be sung during the distribution of the elements.]
- “Before the Throne of God Above”(st. 1–2, 4) Smith
- “Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me” Toplady
- “Grace Unmeasured” Kauflin
Prayer
Jesus in the Garden
[Suggested Image for Projection: tinyurl.com/SodraRada]
Scripture Reading
Speaker: After the meal, they went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples,
Jesus: “Sit here while I pray.”
Speaker: He took Peter, James, and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled.
Jesus: “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch.”
Speaker: Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him.
Jesus: “Abba, Father, everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”
Speaker: He returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. He said to Peter,
Jesus: “Simon, are you asleep? Couldn’t you keep watch for one hour? Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
—adapted from Mark 14:32–38
Congregational Song: “Go to Dark Gethsemane” Montgomery
Scripture Reading
Speaker: Once more he went away and prayed the same thing. When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. They did not know what to say to him.
—Mark 14:39–40
He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed. . . . And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. When he rose from prayer and came to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow.
—Luke 22:41, 44–45
Jesus: “Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!”
—Mark 14:41–42
Congregational Song: “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded” attr. Arnulf
The Crucifixion
[Suggested Image for Projection: tinyurl.com/Ruizanglada]
Scripture Reading
Speaker: The governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand. Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him.
Groups 1&2: “Hail, king of the Jews!”
Speaker: They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him. As they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene, named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross. They came to a place called Golgotha (which means “the place of the skull”). There they offered Jesus wine to drink, mixed with gall; but after tasting it, he refused to drink it. When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots. And sitting down, they kept watch over him there. Above his head they placed the written charge against him:
Groups 1&2: THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS.
Speaker: Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying,
Group 2: “You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself!”
Group 1: “Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!”
Speaker: In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him.
Group 2: “He saved others, but he can’t save himself! He’s the king of Israel!”
Group 1: “Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him.”
Groups 1&2: “He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’”
Speaker: In the same way the rebels who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him. From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice,
Jesus: “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani? My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Speaker: When some of those standing there heard this, they said,
Group 1: “He’s calling Elijah.”
Speaker: Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. The rest said,
Group 2: “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.”
Speaker: And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open. . . . When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed,
Groups 1&2: Surely he was the Son of God!
—adapted from Matthew 27:27–54
Silence
Musical Meditation
Feel free to stay for personal meditation and leave quietly when ready.