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²Ñ³Ü²õ¾±³¦:ÌýSt John Passion -ÌýChoral No. 26

Welcome - Bishop Jo Bailey-Wells

Good morning to you from Trafalgar Square in the heart of London. Today is Palm Sunday, the day when Jesus rode into the heart of the city of Jerusalem on a donkey to the acclaim of the crowds who lined the path. Who knows, but there were buskers, tourists and all manner of bystanders among those pilgrims –Ìý transformed into activists as they joined the drama of hailing this ‘son of David’ as their new king. What may have seemed innocuous to some, perhaps even comical to many, became deeply political. Thus began Jesus’ journey to the cross, the story of Holy Week, the defining narrative which Christians call the Passion.

Each year on Good Friday here in Trafalgar Square a Passion Play is performed by Wintershall Players. It’s an amazing spectacle.

This Good Friday also marks the 300th anniversary of Bach’s masterpiece, the St John Passion, first performed at St Nicholas Church in Leipzig in 1724. The music for today’s Sunday Worship is shared with a Ö÷²¥´óÐã television performance of Bach’s St John Passion, presented by Gareth Malone.

As we begin, let us pray that we may journey with Christ in faith and love, so that, united with him in his sufferings, we may share his risen life:

True and humble king,
hailed by the crowd as Messiah:
grant us the faith to know you and love you,
that we may be found beside you
on the way of the cross,
which is the path of glory.
´¡³¾±ð²Ô.Ìý

Music: Opening chorus of St John Passion

Bishop Jo
That is the opening chorus of St John’s Passion. It echoes the words we just prayed – and it’s a sort-of executive summary of the whole Passion: about journeying with Jesus through suffering and humiliation. The music is filled with foreboding – you can feel the storm and stress that’s gathering, it’s agonising – yet we’re encouraged not to flinch, not to run away. Because if we can hold on, if we can follow Christ, there in the greatest depths will we also find the greatest glory. The Holy Week story where we see the Passion of Christ turns out to be the story of the way God shows his passion for us.

And so now we turn to focus on a few particular moments in the passion story, in music and in drama. As you listen, I invite you in your imagination to place yourself among the disciples in the Upper Room sitting at table with Jesus and think about their personal and political circumstances as you’re carried into the story:Ìý

Wintershall Players: Jesus in the Upper Room

Music: St John Passion -ÌýChoral No. 14

Reflection: Peter
Peter is one of the disciples usually found closest to Jesus, excited by all that Jesus says and does, and enjoying the honour of holding a trusted role at his side. He’s bursting with assurances to his Master – ‘I will never leave you’ he said over dinner. Yet later that same evening, after soldiers have arrested Jesus and Peter is feeling all alone, he spotted as one of the disciples and taunted. In fear for his own reputation and safety, he denies Jesus. In personal terms, Peter is betraying his closest friend. In political terms it’s as if he’s joining the opposition, changing sides, putting his weight behind the unjust powers that have conspired to arrest and take him away. And so in the aftermath he’s devastated: ‘he wept bitterly’ - as if by his very actions he’s bringing on Jesus’ suffering.

Peter’s story brings me to acknowledge my failures – my false assurance, my self-deception, the moments when I’ve let others down – and the consequences of my failures. Yet at the same time, I realise nothing we can do is beyond Jesus’ knowledge and love. No matter how badly we mess up, nothing we do will thwart God’s purposes ultimately. Perhaps Jesus chose Peter to build his Church not despite his denial but because of it: surely only a forgiven sinner could really preach the Gospel.

Lord God:
We confess our false assurance, our selfish deeds, our empty speech.
Forgive us for the ways in which we deny you and betray your goodness and love.
Deepen within us our sorrow for the wrong we have done; expand our hearts to receive your grace and to share it
All for the love of Jesus Christ our Lord
Amen.

Wintershall Players: The Arrest

Music: St John Passion - movements 21g to 22Ìý

+Jo reflection: Test of Leadership
The stage is set. Jesus has been arrested and, like the proverbial buck, is passed from Caiaphas the High Priest to Pilate the Roman governor. On the one hand stand the Jerusalem authorities, apparently manipulating the institutions of power, and on the other hand are the Roman authorities, eager to keep the peace and the status quo. Whoever suggested religion and politics don’t mix?

In this kangaroo court, the presenting political concern for Pilate is that Jesus claims to be king, king of the Jews. But in private, we also get to glimpse Pilate’s personal curiosity: ‘Where are you from?’, he asks Jesus. This is key to understanding Jesus, his identity and his authority, in John’s gospel. In a host of previous encounters Jesus revealed that he is ‘from above’, he’s from God. But here he turns the table around, pointing out that Pilate’s power has come ‘from above’. In other words, his authority is given, not earned: underlining the responsibility to exercise it wisely, to use it well. Pilate is confronted with the truth of his leadership, and the test of his leadership, politically and personally

Wintershall Players: The Trial before Pilate

Music: St John Passion: movementÌý21d

Wintershall Players: The Sentence

Music: St John Passion - movmentsÌý25a - 25c

ReflectionÌý
‘We don’t do God’. So say some politicians in the UK in recent years.They might have been exactly the words of Pilate as Roman Governor too – such business was meant to be the remit of the Jerusalem authorities.

Until now. Here, at Christ’s passion, the religious authorities have sought to absolve themselves from ‘doing God’ and hand over responsibility for what they don’t want to handle. Meanwhile in a sense we find Pilate ‘doing God’, determined as he is to install an inscription on the cross where Jesus is crucified. He even has it translated into 3 languages, Hebrew, Latin and Greek, so that everyone in Jerusalem (not only the Jews) can read the claim for themselves. Like a bill board, it announces ‘Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews’.

But the religious authorities who can’t cope: this title sums up precisely what most concerned them. It’s the very truth claim they set out to oppose. So they suggest an amendment, to relativise it: ‘This man said he’s King of the Jews’. Oh the final irony here: while one of their own is bleeding and dying, suffering the most painful and humiliating death known in the ancient world, close enough for them to be able to read the sign, they opt for distraction and debate the wording. ÌýThose who have the formal responsibility to ‘do God’ get into an argument. Quite apart from declining to recognise him as ‘from above’, sent from God, they can’t even show compassion for a brother in need. Meanwhile it’s the foreign governor, the one who doesn’t do God, who personally makes the gesture of honour, hinting at some recognition of the far-reaching public consequence of his action.

WIntershall Players: Jesus on the Cross

²Ñ³Ü²õ¾±³¦:ÌýSt John Passion -Ìý movementÌý29

WIntershall Players: It is finishedÌý Ìý Ìý Ìý ÌýÌý

Reflection
The music and drama has been building up to this. The noise, the crowds, the deceits and arguments and power plays, the chaos and injustice of a world gone mad, and the ghastly agony of a naked man spread-eagled on a cross: all of it comes to a standstill with Jesus’ last breath and last word: Finished!

What is finished, we may wonder? Clearly his life is finished. His ministry is finished. Perhaps any misconceptions we may harbour about a cosy Messiah or a conquering hero are also finished. But the Greek word ‘³Ù±ð³Ù±ð±ô±ð²õ³Ù²¹¾±â€™ doesn’t just speak to an ending – it’s also about fulfilment and completion. It reverberates with the occasions Jesus has used it before to speak of his purpose, the work God gave him to accomplish. His mission is finished. The scriptures are finished. The old order of sin and decay is finished. The reconciliation between God and creation is finished.

What at first presents as a counsel of despair turns out to be a glorious declaration of hope. The cross is no tragic accident of history but the instrument of God’s saving love, that out-narrates the very worst that we can ever do. When we see the pain and touch the wounds of Christ, we realise the lengths to which God will go for us to be with us and never to be separated from us. The heart of God is laid bare: the love of God is complete, accomplished, finished.

²Ñ³Ü²õ¾±³¦:ÌýSt John Passion -Ìý movementÌý30

Prayers

In prayer we lift ourselves, and the needs of the world for which Jesus died, in prayer to the one who brings all things to completion:Ìý

For forgiveness for the many times we have denied Jesus,Ìýlet us pray to the Lord.

For all who live in Jerusalem and the Holy Land today, for an end to violence and for reconciliation

For those who are sick, remembering especially King Charles and Princess Catherine and all who are in treatment for cancer, that they may find support and healing

For those who, weighed down with hardship, failure, or sorrow,Ìýfeel that God is far away

For those who have died in faith, that we with themÌýmay find mercy in the day of Christ,
Let us pray to the Lord.

The Lord's Prayer

²Ñ³Ü²õ¾±³¦:ÌýSt John Passion -Ìý final chorus

Blessing
Christ crucified draw you to himself,
to find in him a sure ground for faith,
a firm support for hope,
and the assurance of sins forgiven;
and the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, be with you and all for whom you pray, now and forever. Amen.