Welcome to this time of worship on Good Friday. In this service, scripture readings are interwoven with photographs and songs, as we walk through the difficult story of Jesus’ arrest, trial, crucifixion, and death. We invite you to light five candles as you begin this service: you will then be asked to extinguish the candles one by one throughout the service. Take time to pause in these readings, to linger among the photographs, to be carried by the music. Blessings on your journey. Call to Worship Beloved Christ, on this sacred and solemn day, as we worship in many places but in one Spirit, may we enter once more the story of your suffering and death. In the betrayal and desertion of close friends, in the collusion and complicity of the crowds, in the violence and injustice of political systems, may we know the gravity of our sin. In your forgiveness of those who deserted you, In your compassionate resistance to hatred and violence, In your unwavering stand for truth and justice, may we know the depths of your unending love. Open our minds, our bodies, and our hearts to your suffering, to your love, to your great hope in God. Prayer We come, O Christ, broken and beautiful, wondrous and wounded, to enter this story of the One who gives himself in bold, suffering grace, in vulnerable, steadfast love for us. Have mercy on us, O Lord. Amen. Matthew 26:36-46 Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, ‘Sit here while I go over there and pray.’ He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and agitated. Then he said to them, ‘I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and stay awake with me.’ And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want.’ Then he came to the disciples and found them sleeping; and he said to Peter, ‘So, could you not stay awake with me one hour? Stay awake and pray that you may not come into the time of trial; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.’ Again he went away for the second time and prayed, ‘My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.’ Again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. So leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words. Then he came to the disciples and said to them, ‘Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up, let us begoing. See, my betrayer is at hand.’ Extinguish the first candle. Prayer: We confess our weariness and disconnection. Restore us, O God; we long for your strength. Song: Stay with me (HWB 242) Matthew 26:47-56 While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, arrived; with him was a large crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the elders of the people. Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, ‘The one I will kiss is the man; arrest him.’ At once he came up to Jesus and said, ‘Greetings, Rabbi!’ and kissed him. Jesus said to him, ‘Friend, do what you are here to do.’ Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and arrested him. Suddenly, one of those with Jesus put his hand on his sword, drew it, and struck the slave of the high priest, cutting off his ear. Then Jesus said to him, ‘Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the scriptures befulfilled, which say it must happen in this way?’ At that hour Jesus said to the crowds, ‘Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest me as though I were a bandit? Day after day I sat in the temple teaching, and you did not arrest me. But all this has taken place, so that the scriptures of the prophets may be fulfilled.’ Then all the disciples deserted him and fled. Prayer: We confess our betrayals and broken promises. Restore us, O God; we long for courage. Matthew 26:57-68 Then those who had arrested Jesus took him to Caiaphas the high priest, in whose house the scribes and the elders had gathered. But Peter was following him at a distance, as far as the courtyard of the high priest; and going inside, he sat with the guards in order to see how this would end. Now the chief priests and the whole council were looking for false testimony against Jesus so that they might put him to death, but they found none, though many false witnesses came forward. At last two cameforward and said, ‘This fellow said, “I am able to destroy the temple of God and to build it in three days.” ’ The high priest stood up and said, ‘Have you no answer? What is it that they testify against you?’ But Jesus was silent. Then the high priest said to him, ‘I put you under oath before the living God, tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God.’ Jesus said to him, ‘You have said so. But I tell you, From now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.’ Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, ‘He has blasphemed! Why do we still need witnesses? You have now heard his blasphemy. What is your verdict?’ They answered, ‘He deserves death.’ Then they spat in his face and struck him; and some slapped him, saying, ‘Prophesy to us, you Messiah! Who is it that struck you?’ Extinguish the second candle. Prayer: We confess the hatred and violence we harbour within. Restore us, O God; we long for your forgiveness. Song: Jesus walked this lonesome valley (STS 80) Matthew 26:69 – 27:10 Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. A servant-girl came to him and said, ‘You also were with Jesus theGalilean.’ But he denied it before all of them, saying, ‘I do not know what you are talking about.’ When he went out to the porch, another servant-girl saw him, and she said to the bystanders, ‘This man was with Jesus of Nazareth.’ Again he denied it with an oath, ‘I do not know the man.’ After a little while the bystanders came up and said to Peter, ‘Certainly you are also one of them, for your accent betrays you.’ Then he began to curse, and he swore an oath, ‘I do not know the man!’ At that moment the cock crowed. Then Peter remembered what Jesus had said: ‘Before the cock crows, you will deny me three times.’ And he went out and wept bitterly. When morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people conferred together against Jesus in order to bring about his death. They bound him, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate the governor. When Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he repented and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders. He said, ‘I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.’ But they said, ‘What is that to us? See to it yourself.’ Throwing down the pieces of silver in the temple, he departed; and he went and hanged himself. But the chief priests, taking the pieces of silver, said, ‘It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since they are blood money.’ After conferring together, they used them to buy the potter’s field as a place to bury foreigners. For this reason that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah, ‘And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of the one on whom a price had been set, on whom some of the people of Israel had set a price, and they gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord commanded me.’ Prayer: We confess our fear and our despair. Restore us, O God; we long for your peace. Matthew 27:11-26 Now Jesus stood before the governor; and the governor asked him, ‘Are you the King of the Jews?’ Jesus said, ‘You say so.’ But when he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he did not answer. Then Pilate said to him, ‘Do you not hear how many accusations they make against you?’ But he gave him no answer, not even to a single charge, so that the governor was greatly amazed. Now at the festival the governor was accustomed to release a prisoner for the crowd, anyone whom they wanted. At that time they had a notorious prisoner, called Jesus Barabbas. So after they had gathered, Pilate said to them, ‘Whom do you want me to release for you, Jesus Barabbas or Jesus who is called the Messiah?’ For he realized that it was out of jealousy that they had handed him over. While he was sitting on the judgement seat, his wife sent word to him, ‘Have nothing to do with that innocent man, for today I have suffered a great deal because of a dream about him.’ Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus killed. The governor again said to them, ‘Which of the two do you want me to release for you?’ And they said, ‘Barabbas.’ Pilate said to them, ‘Then what should I do with Jesus who is called the Messiah?’ All of them said, ‘Let him be crucified!’ Then he asked, ‘Why, what evil has he done?’ But they shouted all the more, ‘Let him be crucified!’ So when Pilate saw that he could do nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took some water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, ‘I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.’ Then the people as a whole answered, ‘His blood be on us and on our children!’ So he released Barabbas for them; and after flogging Jesus, he handed him over to be crucified. Extinguish the third candle. Prayer: We confess our complicity with injustice and suffering. Restore us, O God; we long for your truth. Song: Ah, holy Jesus (HWB 254) Matthew 27:27-44 Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor’s headquarters, and they gathered the whole cohort around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and after twisting some thorns into a crown, they put it on his head. They put a reed in his right hand and knelt before him and mocked him, saying, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ They spat on him, and took the reed and struck him on the head. After mocking him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him. As they went out, they came upon a man from Cyrene named Simon; they compelled this man to carry his cross. And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull), they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall; but when he tasted it, he would not drink it. And when they had crucified him, they divided his clothes among themselves by casting lots; then they sat down there and kept watch over him. Over his head they put the charge against him, which read, ‘This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.’ Then two bandits were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. Those who passed by derided him, shaking their heads and saying, ‘You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.’ In the same way the chief priests also, along with the scribes and elders, were mocking him, saying, ‘He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he wants to; for he said, “I am God’s Son.” The bandits who were crucified with him also taunted him in the same way. Extinguish the fourth candle. Prayer: We confess our arrogance and contempt. Restore us, O God; we long for integrity and compassion. Song: O Sacred Head Now Wounded (HWB 252) Matthew 27:45-54 From noon on, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And about three o’clock Jesus cried with a loud voice, ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, ‘This man is calling for Elijah.’ At once one of them ran and got a sponge, filled it with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink. But the others said, ‘Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.’ Then Jesus cried again with a loud voice and breathed his last. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. After his resurrection they came out of the tombs and entered the holy city and appeared to many. Now when the centurion and those with him, who were keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were terrified and said, ‘Truly this man was God’s Son!’ Extinguish the Christ candle. Prayer: We confess our grief. Restore us, O God; we long for your hope. Song: Jesus remember me (HWB 247) Matthew 27:55-61 Many women were also there, looking on from a distance; they had followed Jesus from Galilee and had provided for him. Among them were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.
When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who was also a disciple of Jesus. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus; then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. So Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock. He then rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb. Prayer: We wait. We long. We hope. Hear our prayers, and restore us, O God. Benediction Song: So much wrong (STS 84) Thanks to: Dan Dyck for the photography Judith Friesen Epp for planning the compiling the service Alissa Bender (Hamilton Mennonite Church) for inspiration for the prayers of confession Focus Statement: Our hosannas rise on this Palm Sunday, bearing the weight of all our longings and hopes: Hosanna! Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord! Call to Worship On this Palm Sunday we join in spirit with the very large crowd in Jerusalem that spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches and spread them on the road, to welcome Jesus. Together, with those crowds walking in front of Jesus and those walking behind, let us shout: Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven! This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee. Prayer Eternal God, we can only imagine what it must have been like that day in Jerusalem, with throngs of people looking for someone to lead them. Your Son arrives, not on a war horse but on a donkey, to show the Way of Peace. Open our hearts and our minds to receive the hope that comes from following this Prince of Peace. Amen. Song: Hosanna, loud hosanna HWB 238 Prayer of Confession God, we come before you today with troubled hearts. The COVID 19 pandemic, that has captured our attention, disrupted our economy, and altered many lives, reminds us how fragile and how precious life is. Forgive us for the times we forget to show you our gratitude. Lord, have mercy. We come as the people who were baffled that first Palm Sunday, when they realize how quickly their joy was turned to sorrow. Lord, have mercy We come, wanting to be with you as you enter the time and place of your death, knowing we cannot face this week alone. Lord, have mercy (silent prayers) Words of Assurance Know that Jesus offers mercy and understands the hard road between joy and devastation, between belief and disbelief. Know that Jesus will never leave you and will love you on whatever part of the road you find yourself on. Amen. Scripture: Psalm 118:19-29; Matthew 21:1-11 This is God’s word to the people. Thanks be to God. Offering Prayer God, as we open our hearts and hands in sharing, bless what we are able to give. Take what we share and bless it, multiply it, and use it for the work of healing and hope in this world. Amen. Message I’m sitting this morning beside the beautiful Lent display in our sanctuary. Before this time of social isolation began, we were, for each Sunday in Lent, extinguishing one candle. Today on Palm Sunday, the sixth Sunday of Lent, there would have been just one candle left burning. And as I sit in the empty sanctuary, I have so many good memories of the children parading up and down the aisles waving palm branches, while we all sang our hosannas together. I’m hoping that some of you children might have done a little parading around your homes this morning with the palm branch that was left on your doorstep yesterday. When I was a kid, I did my own waving of palm branches down the aisles of Grace Mennonite Church in Brandon, Manitoba. I always thought this was a pretty great gig: You got to yell in church! And my shouts carried a tone something like, “Hosanna! Go Jesus! You got this, King Jesus!” For me, it sort of seemed like the cheering section for a sports team. And according to the story in Matthew, it sure seems like the crowd was cheering Jesus on, hailing him as their champion, their Saviour, with their hosannas, their shouts of praise. But the funny thing is, that’s not at all what the word “hosanna” originally meant. If we go back to the Hebrew roots of the word, we find that hosanna actually meant, “Save us, please!” It was a plea for help. In fact, the way Matthew tells the story, the crowds in that palm parade were directly quoting Psalm 118, where hosanna is translated as Save us, we beseech you! O Lord, we beseech you! Now that would kind of change the tone of the story just a bit, don’t you think? If the crowd in the palm parade was not crying, “Go, Jesus, go!” but rather, “Save us, O Lord.” So that raises the question: What was that crowd doing that day? Crying for help? Or shouting praise? Was hosanna an exclamation of desperation? Or faith? What, really is going on in this crowd? “Hosanna,” it turns out, is a pretty loaded word. For the Israelites, it carried historical connotations, overlaid with meanings in their present context, as well as big future expectation. In its historical context, if we go back to the roots of the word hosanna in the history of the Israelite people, we find that word just once, only Psalm 118. And Psalm 118 was part of the temple liturgy for the Feast of Tabernacles. During this feast, the Israelites constructed and lived in temporary booths, remembering how their ancestors lived in fragile shelters during their 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. As part of this celebration, the people chanted the hosannas of Psalm 118: Save us, we beseech You, O Lord! O Lord, we beseech You! But this petition is followed immediately by a confident exclamation of praise: Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. And they would celebrate how God had sheltered them and provided for them in their need. During the Feast, in their communal worship, hosanna was certainly a cry for help, and it was mingled together with praise for help already received. It was a recognition of the God who both hears and responds, who both sees and acts. “Hosanna, Save Us!” was inseparable from the affirmation,“God saves!” Both petition and praise, in a single word. Many years later, when the Israelite people drew again on this word, hosanna, they were once more in a fragile, dangerous time. They were living under foreign occupation, and their lives were constantly controlled by cruel, colonial systems. Just 150 years before the time of Jesus, Judas Maccabeus had led the Israelites in a successful revolt against the imperial power of Syria. The Israelites had celebrated this victory by waving palm branches, and Judas Maccabeus had stamped the image of palm branches into coins to commemorate the victory. This story would have been deeply embedded in the collective psyche of the Israelites when, in the time of Jesus, they were living under another colonial power – this time Rome. And when they took up palm branches, just like the followers of Judas Maccabeus, you can bet those Hosannas! contained a good bit of resistance. They were hailing a king – King Jesus – in direct challenge to the Roman King and all his power. Hosanna! A cry of petition. A cry of praise. A cry of resistance. And if that’s not enough, hosanna was also a cry that projected into the future. We read in the story of Matthew that the whole city of Jerusalem was set in turmoil by the hosanna parade. That word “turmoil” in Greek, is the same root word that is used to describe the earthquake at Jesus’ final breath upon the cross. The same word is used to describe another earthquake when the angel of the Lord appeared and rolled back the stone from the tomb. In Old Testament prophecy, that kind of shaking of the earth was a sign of “the day of the Lord,” the coming of God. To emphasize this even more, the crowds in Jesus day were waving those palm branches on the Mount of Olives, a site that was linked in Israelite prophecy with God coming in power and restoration. The hosannas of the crowd were loaded with great hope in the seismic nature and cosmic significance of Jesus. Hosanna! Petition. Praise. Resistance. Hope. It’s an ancient, weighted word, swirling with emotions and expectations, with fears and hopes. And I wonder if this vast word, hosanna, is both spacious and hefty enough to hold the swirl of emotions we carry with us today. Like the Israelite people, we are also living in dangerous, fragile times, knowing our vulnerabilities. As we grasp our Palm branches, I think our hosannas today are expansive enough to carry our most haunting fears, our gnawing anxieties in the night, our deepest longings for God: Hosanna! Save us, we beseech you! Even as we cry for help, the word on our tongue pivots towards faith, because the cries are directional. They are turned towards the One we trust, the One we believe can help us. As we cry “Hosanna!” in our collective worship, dispersed though we are, we are joining thousands of years of Israelite worship. This word holds the long storied history of how God has helped us in the past and to it may we add our own the stories of God sheltering us in the wilderness. May our cries of “God, save us!” also be tuned towards this remembering in faith and praise. Will our hosanna this year also carry the tone of defiance? Will it be our cry of resistance to a culture of fear? Will it speak generosity in the face of hoarding? As we withdraw and shut the physical doors of our church to the community, as we close our homes to our friends and neighbours, will our hosannas keep our hearts wide open in prayer and in acts of creative care? Finally may we know in our hosannas the powerful strains of hope. If this coronavirus is global in its scope, if it has brought the whole world to its knees, how much more should our hosannas rise, proclaiming the earthshaking life, death and resurrection of Jesus, announcing the cosmic significance of the God who promises to be more than enough to meet us in this time of global crisis. May we enter the days ahead holding tight to our palm branches, and may that ancient cry, “Hosanna!” rise again, rich in history, layered in meaning, full of petition, praise, resistance, hope, all that we carry. Nothing will be lost in our cries to God. Hosanna! Hosanna in the highest heaven! Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord! Song Nothing is lost on the breath of God Purple 121 Prayers of the people God of palms and passions, Since nothing is lost on your breath, O God, we bring before you all that swirls within us these days: Our fears and anxieties in uncertain times, our longings and hopes for this day and for the days ahead, our pain and illness, our loneliness and grief, our joy in small gifts and unexpected delights. Hear our prayers, O God. Since no one is lost before your eyes, O God, we hold before all who face great challenges in these days: those who are ill and suffer pain those who are vulnerable and afraid those who grieve those who are alone and isolated those who lament lost opportunities and radically altered plans those who seek food and safe shelter in these difficult days those who are losing their income businesses, organizations and institutions struggling to survive front-line medical workers who, at great personal risk, care for others leaders who seek to guide us through this time of crisis Hear our prayers, O God. Since no place is hidden from your heart, O God, we pray that your love will flow with comfort, strength, and hope into the deep spaces of our lives the homes and streets of our neighbourhoods the communities, towns and cities in this land countries around the world. May we all know your heart of love, the love that remains, holding the world forever. Hear our prayers, O God. And now, in faith and hope, we pray together as Jesus taught us: Our Father in heaven hallowed be your name, your kingdom come your will be done, on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil. For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours now and forever. AMEN Song Ride on, ride on in majesty Blue 239 Benediction May you find the balance you need in the ups and downs of your life, and may you have the courage to keep following Jesus. Go in peace to continue your walk with Jesus. Artwork: The Entry into Jerusalem, Simon Bening, about 1525-1530. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. Digital image courtesy of the Getty's Open Content Program. Thanks to: David Neufeld for collecting and writing prayers and litanies Judith Friesen Epp for the meditation Leader magazine, for worship resources |