Welcome to this week’s service from Craigmillar Park and Reid Memorial churches on the south side of Edinburgh. Today sees the beginning of Holy Week, and so our focus turns towards the final days of the journey to the Cross and on to Resurrection.
Call to Worship (from Psalm 31)In you, O Lord, I seek refuge;
in your righteousness deliver me.
Be gracious to me, O Lord,
for I am in distress.
I trust in you, O lord;
I say, ‘You are my God.’
HYMN 279 Make way, make way
(From Holy Trinity Church, Dromore)
Prayer
God, we come before you at the start of a new week.
It is a week of darkness,
a week where we are focussed on suffering,
a week where we are focussed on the cross of Christ.
God, we come before you at the start of this week,
to seek your light,
to have the courage of our convictions,
and the strength to pick up our cross.
God, we come seeking not praise for ourselves,
but to praise you.
We come to praise Jesus for his unending grace,
for his unending love and mercy towards us.
Have mercy upon us, our God.
According to you steadfast love,
according to your abundant mercy,
blot out our sins.
Cleanse us, wash us,
renew us, restore us.
Make us anew,
that we may worthily stand before you.
Cast us not from your holy presence,
and take not your Spirit from within us.
Give us joy once again,
and restore to us a willing spirit.
We bring before you our hearts,
broken and contrite.
Once more give us life and wholeness
that we may lift high your name.
Standing at the foot of the cross, as our Saviour taught us, so we pray:
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 for ever. Amen.
Scriptures:
Mark 11: 1-11 – Triumphal entry
As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, saying to them, ‘Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, “Why are you doing this?” say, “The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.”’
They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, some people standing there asked, ‘What are you doing, untying that colt?’ They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go. When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted,
‘Hosanna!’
‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’
‘Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!’
‘Hosanna in the highest heaven!’
Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.
HYMN 367 Hosanna, loud hosanna
(from First-Plymouth Church Lincoln Nebraska)
Scriptures:
Mark 15: 1-15 – Pilate
Very early in the morning, the chief priests, with the elders, the teachers of the law and the whole Sanhedrin, made their plans. So they bound Jesus, led him away and handed him over to Pilate.
‘Are you the king of the Jews?’ asked Pilate.
‘You have said so,’ Jesus replied.
The chief priests accused him of many things. So again Pilate asked him, ‘Aren’t you going to answer? See how many things they are accusing you of.’
But Jesus still made no reply, and Pilate was amazed.
Now it was the custom at the festival to release a prisoner whom the people requested. A man called Barabbas was in prison with the rebels who had committed murder in the uprising. The crowd came up and asked Pilate to do for them what he usually did.
‘Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?’ asked Pilate, knowing it was out of self-interest that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to get Pilate to release Barabbas instead.
‘What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?’ Pilate asked them.
‘Crucify him!’ they shouted.
‘Why? What crime has he committed?’ asked Pilate.
But they shouted all the louder, ‘Crucify him!’
Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.
Mark 15: 21-37– Crucifixion
A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross. They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means ‘the place of the skull’). Then they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. And they crucified him. Dividing up his clothes, they cast lots to see what each would get.
It was nine in the morning when they crucified him. The written notice of the charge against him read: the king of the Jews.
They crucified two rebels with him, one on his right and one on his left. Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, ‘So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, come down from the cross and save yourself!’ In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. ‘He saved others,’ they said, ‘but he can’t save himself! Let this Messiah, this king of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.’ Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him.
The death of Jesus
At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?’ (which means ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’).
When some of those standing near heard this, they said, ‘Listen, he’s calling Elijah.’
Someone ran, filled a sponge with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. ‘Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to take him down,’ he said.
With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last.
HYMN 374 From heaven you came (The Servant King)
(From the Chet Valley Churches)
Scriptures:
Mark 15: 42-47 – Burial
It was Preparation Day (that is, the day before the Sabbath). So as evening approached, Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Council, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. Pilate was surprised to hear that he was already dead. Summoning the centurion, he asked him if Jesus had already died. When he learned from the centurion that it was so, he gave the body to Joseph. So Joseph bought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen, and placed it in a tomb cut out of rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph saw where he was laid.
A Reflection for Holy Week
A donkey? A donkey!
This is not how you imagine a king arriving in the city. A warhorse, yes. But, a donkey! It is an image that would have raised questions among the crowds. It is an image that raises questions now. How may we interpret it? What does it mean? Ask those last two questions of almost anyone, and you will get at least as many answers as people.
However the questions are answered, you will find running through the scene a direct challenge to understandings of power and authority. First, Jesus arrives on a donkey rather than a warhorse. Was Jesus aiming to fulfil the prophecy of Zechariah or was there more at work. The gospels relate that the donkey had never been ridden; was Jesus showing that he had authority over nature as the animal had not yet been ‘broken in’? We read elsewhere of Jesus being referred to as ‘Galilean’. Galilee was usually looked down upon by folk from Jerusalem. Was Jesus challenging this, or was it a rallying call to others that no-one is inferior? Whatever was going on in the mind of Jesus we are never told. We do know, though, that his actions caused concern and anxiety in the ruling elite. Any perceived challenge to authority was a challenge to their positions of power and influence. A change in authority could cost them their privileged position.
Perhaps those questions are simply academic. But what if reading this part of the gospel story challenges our assumptions and behaviours around issues of power and authority. What if Jesus was undermining our comfortable positions. Does that make him, and his message, less appealing? Early in May we will have elections to the Scottish Parliament – what would the actions of Jesus say to the prospective MSPs, their parties, and government? Whatever our answers we are called as disciples to follow in his footsteps; we are called to ‘speak truth to power’. This may make us uncomfortable; it may mean taking risks but that is the way of Jesus. With the impending election it means weighing up the various announcements with one eye clearly on the commands of Christ. Only then may we reasonably decide which way to vote, and why.
This coming week is Holy Week and through it we follow the final steps of the journey to the cross. The path that Christ trod was a costly one; Good Friday testifies to that. Like the first disciples we, too, are called to pick up our crosses and follow him. It probably will not require us to make the ultimate sacrifice, but it will cost. The cost for Christ was the Cross. But after that came Easter and Resurrection. If we accept the call to follow, we too will experience our own resurrection. Faithfulness does have a cost, but it also has a reward.
Amen.
HYMN 385 Here hangs a man discarded
(Recorded and performed by Everingham Music)
Prayers for the world
Let us give thanks to the Lord,
for his mercy endures for ever.
Blessed are you, our God, the king who rides on the colt of a donkey.
We lay down at your feet our lives, dedicated to your service.
Give your people grace to praise you with both word and action.
Blessed are you, our God, the servant king.
We lay down before you the decisions that we must make.
Give us the grace and wisdom to choose for the benefit of all.
Blessed are you, our God, friend of both rich and poor.
We lay down before you our friendships, and those we find it difficult to be with.
Give us mercy both to reach out, and to be touched by the lives of others.
Blessed are you, our God, suffering servant.
We lay down before you the sick and the dying, the worrying and the grieving.
Give us hope in the midst of our darkness.
Blessed are you, our God, crucified king,
We lay down before you our lives and dreams.
transform us that we may bring life and hope to all.
Let us give thanks to the Lord,
for his mercy endures for ever.
Amen.
HYMN 577 Christ be beside me
(From Methodist Temple UMC)
Benediction:
May the Father, whose glory fills the heavens,
cleanse you by his holiness.
May Christ Jesus, who has ascended to the heights,
pour upon you the riches of his grace.
May the Holy Spirit, the Comforter,
equip you and strengthen you in all that you do.
May the blessing of God almighty,
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
be upon you and remain with you always.
Amen.
Acknowledgements:
English translations of Lord’s Prayer © 1988 English Language Liturgical Consultation (ELLC). www.englishtexts.org. Used by permission.
Holy Bible, New International Version® Anglicized, NIV® Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.