Reader 1 – Pastor Stout
Reader 2 – Melanie Cauble
Reader 3 – Richard Clayton
Reader 4 – Wanda Neal
Reader 5 – Basil Neal
Reader 6 – Rusty Cline
Reader 7 – Justin Lassiter
Reader 8 – Crystal Conrad
The Passion According to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John
Jesus Before Pilate
Reader 1: When they had bound Jesus, they led him from Caiaphas to the hall of judgment and gave him over to Pontius Pilate, the governor. It was early. They themselves did not go into the judgment hall, so that they might not be defiled, but might eat the Passover.
Reader 2: Pilate then went out to them, and said, “What charge do you bring against this man?”
They answered and said to him, “If he were not a criminal, we would not have handed him over to you.”
Then Pilate said to them, “Take him, then, and judge him according to your law.”
The Jews said to him, “It is not lawful for us to put any man to death.” So the word of Jesus was fulfilled, signifying by what death he should die.
Reader 3: The charges they brought against him were: “We found this fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding us to pay taxes to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ, a king.”
Reader 4: Then Pilate entered into the judgment hall again, and called Jesus, and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?”
Jesus answered him, “Do you say this for yourself, or did others say it to you about me?”
Pilate answered, “Do you take me for a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have given you over to me. What have you done?”
Reader 5: Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world; if my kingdom were of this world, then my servants would have fought that I should not be given over to the Jews; but now my kingdom is not of this world.”
Pilate therefore said to him, “Are you a king then?”
Reader 6 : Jesus answered, “You say rightly that I am a king. I was born and I came into the world that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone that is of the truth hears my voice.”
Pilate said to him, “What is truth?”
After he had said this, he went out again to the Jews and said to them, “I find no fault in this man.”
Reader 7: The chief priests kept laying one charge after another against him, but he answered not a word. Pilate questioned him again, saying, “Do you answer nothing? See how many charges they lay against you.” Jesus answered him not a word. Pilate was utterly amazed. He said to the chief priests and the crowd, “I find no case against this man.”
Reader 8: They pressed their charges more vehemently: “He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judaea, beginning from Galilee to this place.”
When Pilate heard of Galilee, he asked whether the man was a Galilean. When he learned that he belonged in Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him on to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem for those days.
Reader 1: When Herod saw Jesus, he was delighted, for he had long wished to see him because of what he had heard of him, and he hoped to see him do a miracle. He questioned Jesus repeatedly, but he gave him no answer. The chief priests and scribes stood there and vehemently accused him. Herod and his soldiers mocked him. They put a splendid robe on him and sent him back to Pilate.
Herod and Pilate became friends with each other that same day, for before this they had been at enmity with each other.
Reader 2: Pilate then called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people, and said to them, “You have brought this man before me as one subverting the people. See now, I have examined him before you and have found nothing in this man guilty of any of your charges against him, and neither did Herod, for he sent him back to us. Mark this, he has done nothing worthy of death. I will have him punished and release him.”
Reader 3: Now at the feast it was the governor’s custom to release to the crowd any one prisoner whom they asked for. They had then a notorious prisoner named Barabbas. He was in prison with the rebels who had committed murder during the insurrection in the city. Pilate knew that it was out of malice that the chief priests handed Jesus over. Therefore he said to them, “Do you want me to release for you Barabbas or Jesus who is called Christ?”
Reader 4: The chief priests and elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus.
Pilate asked them again, “Which of the two do you want me to release for you?”
And they cried out all together, saying, “Away with this man, and release for us Barabbas.”
Hymn – Let us Ever Walk With Jesus (St. 1-2)
1 Let us ever walk with Jesus,
Follow His example pure,
Through a world that would deceive us
And to sin our spirits lure.
Onward in His footsteps treading,
Pilgrims here, our home above,
Full of faith and hope and love,
Let us do the Father’s bidding.
Faithful Lord, with me abide;
I shall follow where You guide.
2 Let us suffer here with Jesus
And with patience bear our cross.
Joy will follow all our sadness;
Where He is, there is no loss.
Though today we sow no laughter,
We shall reap celestial joy;
All discomforts that annoy
Shall give way to mirth hereafter.
Jesus, here I share Your woe;
Help me there Your joy to know.
Reader 5: While Pilate was sitting in the judgment seat, his wife sent him a message: “Do not have anything to do with that man; I have suffered much over him today in a dream.”
Reader 6: Again Pilate addressed them, for he wished to release Jesus. He said to them, “What shall I do then with Jesus who is called Christ? What shall I do with him whom you call the King of the Jews?”
They all cried out, “Crucify him!”
Pilate said to them, “Why, what evil has he done? I have found no guilt worthy of death in him; I will therefore punish him and let him go.”
They cried out all the louder, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”
Reader 7: Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. The soldiers of the governor led him away into the praetorium. They gathered the whole band of soldiers around him. They stripped him and put a purple robe on him. When they had woven a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and a reed in his right hand, and they 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. They knelt down and did him homage.
Reader 8: Pilate went out again and said to them, “See, I bring him out to you that you may know I find him not guilty.” So Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold the man!”
Reader 1: When the chief priests and officers saw him, they cried, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”
Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I do not find him guilty.”
The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and by that law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.”
Reader 2: When Pilate heard this, he was more afraid and went again into the judgment hall and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” Jesus gave him no answer. Then Pilate said to him, “Do you refuse to speak to me? Do you not know that I have power to crucify you, and I have power to release you?”
Jesus answered, “You would not have any power at all over me, unless it had been given to you from above. For that reason he who handed me over to you has the greater sin.”
Reader 3: This prompted Pilate to go on trying to release him, but the Jews cried out, “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Everyone who makes himself a king sets himself against Caesar.”
When Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the Pavement or, in Hebrew, Gabbatha. It was the Preparation of the Passover, about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, “Behold your king!”
They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!”
Pilate said unto them, “Shall I crucify your king?”
The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.”
Reader 4: When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but rather a riot was under way, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of the blood of this man; see to it yourselves.”
Then all the people responded, “His blood be on us and on our children.”
Reader 5: Then Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, gave sentence that it should be as they demanded. He released to them Barabbas for whom they asked, the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder. He had Jesus flogged and then gave him over to their will to be crucified. The soldiers mocked him, stripped him of the purple robe, put his own clothes on him, and led him out to crucify him.
Hymn – Go to Dark Gethsemane (St. 1-2)
1 Go to dark Gethsemane,
All who feel the tempter’s pow’r;
Your Redeemer’s conflict see,
Watch with Him one bitter hour;
Turn not from His griefs away;
Learn from Jesus Christ to pray.
2 Follow to the judgment hall,
View the Lord of life arraigned;
Oh, the wormwood and the gall!
Oh, the pangs His soul sustained!
Shun not suff’ring, shame, or loss;
Learn from Him to bear the cross.
The Crucifixion
Reader 6: The soldiers now had charge of Jesus. Carrying his own cross, he went out of the city to a place called Skull Hill, in Hebrew, Golgotha. As they led him away, they laid hold of Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus, who was coming in from the country. On him they laid the cross that he might bear it after Jesus. Following him was a great company of people and of women who bewailed and lamented him. Jesus turned to them and said,
Reader 7: “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. The days are surely coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never gave suck.’ Then they will say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ For if they do these things with a green tree, what will happen with a dry one?”
Reader 8: There were also two others, criminals whom they led along to be put to death with him. When they came to the place called Golgotha, they gave him wine mingled with gall to drink, but when he tasted it, he would not drink it.
Reader 1: It was the third hour, and there they crucified him.
Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
The two criminals they also crucified with him—one on his right, the other on his left, with Jesus in the middle. The Scripture was then fulfilled which says, “And he was numbered with the transgressors.”
Reader 2: When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they cast lots to divide his clothes and decide what each should take. They made four parts, one for each soldier. There remained his tunic, which was without seam, woven in one piece from the top to the bottom. They said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to decide who shall have it.” The Scripture was thus fulfilled which says, “They divided my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.” These things the soldiers did and, sitting down, they kept watch over him there.
Reader 3: Over his head was put the charge against him. Pilate wrote the notice to be put on the cross. It read, JESUS OF NAZARETH, KING OF THE JEWS. This title was read by many of the Jews, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near to the city, and it was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. The chief priests of the Jews then said to Pilate, “You should not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but ‘This man said, I am the King of the Jews.’”
Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”
Reader 4: People stood by, watching. Those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads, and saying, “Aha! 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.”
Reader 5: So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him to one another saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. Let the Christ, the King of Israel, now come down from the cross that we may see and believe. He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’”
Reader 6: The soldiers also mocked him, coming to him and offering him wine, and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself.” The thieves who were crucified with him also reviled him. And one of the criminals who hung there with him railed at him:
“Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us.”
Reader 7: But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God since you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are getting what we deserve for what we have done; but this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
Jesus said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
Hymn – Go to Dark Gethsemane (St. 3-4)
3 Calv’ry’s mournful mountain climb;
There, adoring at His feet,
Mark that miracle of time,
God’s own sacrifice complete.
“It is finished!” hear Him cry;
Learn from Jesus Christ to die.
4 Early hasten to the tomb
Where they laid His breathless clay;
All is solitude and gloom.
Who has taken Him away?
Christ is ris’n! He meets our eyes.
Savior, teach us so to rise.
Rise
Reader 8: Near to the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.
Reader 1: About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
When some of them that were standing there heard it, they said, “He is calling for Elijah.”
After this, Jesus knew that all things were accomplished. Fulfilling the Scripture he said, “I thirst.” There was a jar of wine standing there. One of them ran immediately to get a sponge. He filled it with wine, put it on a reed, held it up to his mouth, and gave it to him to drink.
Others said, “Wait and see if Elijah will come and save him.”
When Jesus had received the wine, he cried with a loud voice, “It is finished!” Then he said, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” Having said this, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
Reader 2: At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus’ resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people.
When the centurion who stood facing him saw how he died, he said, “Truly, this man was the Son of God.”
Reader 3: All the people who had gathered to see the sight, when they saw what had happened, turned away beating their breasts. Those who had known him stood at a distance, as also the women who had followed him from Galilee. Among them was Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome the mother of the sons of Zebedee.
Reader 4: It was the day of Preparation before the Sabbath, and this was Passover Sabbath. Therefore, so that the bodies should not remain on the crosses during the Sabbath, the Jews asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies removed. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who was crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs, but one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. One who saw it is our witness, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth that you also may believe. These things were done that the Scripture should be fulfilled, “Not one of his bones shall be broken.” And again, another Scripture says, “They shall look on him whom they pierced.”
Reader 5: By this time evening had come. A respected member of the council, Joseph of Arimathea, was one who was looking for the kingdom of God, a good and righteous man who had not consented to their purpose and deed. He was a disciple of Jesus secretly, for he feared the Jews. Now he took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.
Reader 6: Pilate was astonished that he could be dead already. He called for the centurion and asked him whether Jesus was already dead. When he was assured by the centurion that it was so, Pilate granted Joseph the corpse and commanded that it be given over to him.
Reader 7: Joseph bought fine linen and came and took the body of Jesus. Nicodemus came also, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pound weight. It was he who had first come to Jesus by night. They then took the body of Jesus and wrapped it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews.
Reader 8: Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new tomb, where no one had ever been buried. Joseph laid the body in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock, and rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb, and departed.
Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses were sitting there opposite the sepulcher and saw where he was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and ointments. On the sabbath day they rested according to the commandment.
Reader 1: On the next day, the day after the Preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees went together to Pilate and said, “Sir, we remember what that imposter said, while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ Therefore command that the sepulcher be made secure until the third day to stop his disciples from coming and stealing him and saying to the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’ making the final deception worse than the first.”
Reader 2: Pilate said to them, “You have a guard of soldiers. Go and make it as secure as you know how.” So they went and made the tomb secure, sealing the stone and setting a watch.
Nicene Creed
I believe in one God,
the Father Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth
and of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the only-begotten Son of God,
begotten of His Father before all worlds,
God of God, Light of Light,
very God of very God,
begotten, not made,
being of one substance with the Father,
by whom all things were made;
who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven
and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary
and was made man;
and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate.
He suffered and was buried.
And the third day He rose again according to the Scriptures
and ascended into heaven
and sits at the right hand of the Father.
And He will come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead,
whose kingdom will have no end.
And I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Lord and giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son,
who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified,
who spoke by the prophets.
And I believe in one holy Christian and apostolic Church,
I acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins,
and I look for the resurrection of the dead
and the life of the world to come. Amen.
Hymn ~ Let Us Ever Walk with Jesus (St. 3-4)
3 Let us gladly die with Jesus.
Since by death He conquered death,
He will free us from destruction,
Give to us immortal breath.
Let us mortify all passion
That would lead us into sin;
And the grave that shuts us in
Shall but prove the gate to heaven.
Jesus, here with You I die,
There to live with You on high.
4 Let us also live with Jesus.
He has risen from the dead
That to life we may awaken.
Jesus, You are now our head.
We are Your own living members;
Where You live, there we shall be
In Your presence constantly,
Living there with You forever.
Jesus, let me faithful be,
Life eternal grant to me.