The Sunday Next before Easter
Usually I'd just paste in the lessons from the Lectionary Page but this year is different. In this space I'd like to explore some alternate ways of looking at things. During Holy Week, on Easter Day, and in Easter Week, I'll look at the readings from the Book of Common Prayer 1662 (Church of England). For the Sunday next before Easter, which we in America call Palm Sunday or Palm/Passion Sunday, the readings for the Liturgy of the Word are pretty much the same, Epistle and Gospel. I've added below the RCL readings from the book of the prophet Isaiah (from the Authorized Version of 1611) and the Psalm (Coverdale/1662 ). And so what I have to write is based on those readings....
In those older days the English Reformers really focused on the work of Christ on the Cross. The victory awaits Easter.
So the Sunday next before Easter. The focus is on the Passion. And it begins a week of readings that give us, in turn, the narratives from the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, of not so much the last week of Jesus' earthly life but those events of the very last night and day of Jesus. The last twenty-four hours, beginning at sunset, so the last 'day' in traditional parlance of the times. Jesus begins, as we shall find out in subsequent lessons in days ahead, with the gathering of disciples to keep the Passover feast - the Last Supper. But this gospel reading just goes bang into the next day, skipping right over the events of the evening.
[The Plot to Kill Jesus, The Anointing at Bethany, Judas Agrees to Betray Jesus, The Passover with the Disciples, The Institution of the Lord’s Supper, Peter’s Denial Foretold, Jesus Prays in Gethsemane, The Betrayal and Arrest of Jesus, Jesus before the High Priest, Peter’s Denial of Jesus. ]
Jesus Brought before Pilate, The Suicide of Judas, Pilate Questions Jesus, Barabbas or Jesus? Pilate Hands Jesus over to Be Crucified,The Soldiers Mock Jesus, The Crucifixion of Jesus, The Death of Jesus. Tbe 1662 BCP reading for the day ends there, leaving for the future the witness of the women to the crucifixion, The Burial of Jesus, and the posting of The Guard at the Tomb.
So it ends, for the moment, in tragedy.
And confession. The very soldiers sent to crucify him proclaim: Truly this man was the Son of God.
They know; why don't we? Why does the crowd hold back?
Fear...
And awe. Perhaps they are the same thing, differently displayed.
Pilate the prefect of Judea knew what he was doing, by his lights. He was crucifying the king of the Jews, to put down rebellion. To keep the peace on this most volatile of holidays, Passover week.
He is expecting a riot on his hands. And he gets one.
One he does not live to see.
But it is there, emerging, even before he was born.
It is latent in the very birth of the universe.
The God who creates is the God who redeems, and is the God who inspires and continues to sustain us.
Even in the shadow of death. Perhaps especially in the shadow of death.
Isaiah 50:4-9a
The Lord
God hath given me the tongue of the
learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is
weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as
the learned.
The Lord
God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back.
I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.
For the Lord
God will help me; therefore shall I
not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I
know that I shall not be ashamed.
He is near that justifieth me; who will contend with me? let us stand together: who is mine adversary? let him come near to me.
Behold, the Lord
God will help me; who is he that shall condemn me? lo, they all shall wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up.
Psalm 31:9-16
Thou hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy *
but hast set my feet in a large room.
Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am in trouble *
and mine eye is consumed for very heaviness; yea, my soul and my body.
For my life is waxen old with heaviness *
and my years with mourning.
My strength faileth me, because of mine iniquity *
and my bones are consumed.
I became a reproof among all mine enemies, but especially among my neighbours *
and they of mine acquaintance were afraid of me; and they that did see me without conveyed themselves from me.
I am clean forgotten, as a dead man out of mind *
I am become like a broken vessel.
For I have heard the blasphemy of the multitude *
and fear is on every side, while they conspire together against me, and take their counsel to take away my life.
But my hope hath been in thee, O Lord *
I have said, Thou art my God.
The Collect
Almighty and everlasting God, who, of thy tender love towards mankind, hast sent thy Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ, to take upon him our flesh, and to suffer death upon the cross, that all mankind should follow the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant, that we may both follow the example of his patience, and also be made partakers of his resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Epistle
Philippians 2.5-11
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
The Gospel
St. Matthew 27.1-54
When the morning was come, all the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel against Jesus, to put him to death. And when they had bound him, they led him away, and delivered him to Pontius Pilate the governor. Then Judas who had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, I have sinned, in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that. And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself. And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, it is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood. And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter's field, to bury strangers in. Wherefore that field was called, The field of blood, unto this day. (Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value, and gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord appointed me.) And Jesus stood before the governor; and the governor asked him, saying, Art thou the King of the Jews? And Jesus said unto him, Thou sayest. And when he was accused of the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing. Then saith Pilate unto him, Hearest thou not how many things they witness against thee? And he answered him to never a word, in so much that the governor marvelled greatly. Now at that feast the governor was wont to release unto the people a prisoner, whom they would. And they had then a notable prisoner, called Barabbas. Therefore when they were gathered together, Pilate said unto them, Whom will ye that I release unto you? Barabbas, or Jesus which is called Christ? For he knew that for envy they had delivered him. When he was set down on the judgement-seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, Have thou nothing to do with that just man: for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him. But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barabbas, and destroy Jesus. The governor answered and said unto them, Whether of the twain will ye that I release unto you? They said, Barabbas. Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? They all say unto him, Let him be crucified. And the governor said, Why, what evil hath he done? But they cried out the more, saying, Let him be crucified. When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it. Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children. Then released he Barabbas unto them: and when he had scourged Jesus he delivered him to be crucified. Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall, and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers. And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe. And when they had platted a crown of thorns they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews. And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head. And after that they had mocked him they took the robe off from him, and put his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him. And as they came out they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name; him they compelled to bear his cross. And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull, they gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall: and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink. And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots: that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophet, They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots. And sitting down they watched him there; and set up over his head his accusation written, THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS. Then were there two thieves crucified with him; one on the right hand, and another on the left. And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads, and saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself: if thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross. Likewise also the chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said, He saved others, himself he cannot save: if he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him. He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God. The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth. Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This man calleth for Elias. And straightway one of them ran, and took a spunge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink. The rest said, Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him. Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And behold, the vail of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom, and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent, and the graves were opened, and many bodies of saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many. Now when the centurion and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God.
Text from The Book of Common Prayer, the rights in which are vested in the Crown,
is reproduced by permission of the Crown's Patentee, Cambridge University Press.
https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/worship-texts-and-resources/book-common-prayer/collects-epistles-and-gospels-25#na
