Good Friday Personalities of the Passion
Introduction and notes on the music:
This meditation has two constant themes running through it: the continuous narrative of the events of the Passion according to St John’s Gospel and Bach’s Chorale Partita ‘Sei Gegrußet, Jesu gütig’ (BWV 768).
In places the narrative is either replaced, or augmented with poetry, offering the viewpoint from the perspective of one of the Personalities of the Passion. This has common ground with musical settings of the Passion, and especially those by Bach himself, whereby the narrative as told by the Evangelist is interspersed with Arias, Chorales and Choruses.
A Chorale Partita is a set of variations upon the chorale tune although their exact purpose is uncertain. They could have been used in the home, or in church as either voluntaries or as interludes between the verses of a congregational hymn. Alternatively, they may have been compositional models or exercises. With Sei Gegrußet, Jesu gütig the number of variations exceeds the number of verses of the hymn and the mood of the variations does not necessarily reflect the words of the text, which might question their use as interludes for the hymn. The scholar Clement has suggested that the words ‘O Jesu, du edle Gabe’, a Jesus song for Communion, for which the tune was also used, have a closer correlation between text and music. This is certainly most apposite for Passiontide as each verse closes with the refrain ‘Your blood washes me from sin / and extinguishes the fires of Hell’.
Introduction and Welcome
The priest welcomes everybody.
We gather in the name of God:
+ Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Hymn
It is a thing most wonderful,
almost too wonderful to be,
that God's own Son should come from heaven,
and die to save a child like me.
And yet I know that it is true:
He chose a poor and humble lot,
and wept and toiled and mourned and died
for love of those who loved him not.
I cannot tell how he could love
a child so weak and full of sin;
his love must be most wonderful,
if he could die my love to win.
I sometimes think about the cross,
and shut my eyes, and try to see
the cruel nails and crown of thorns,
and Jesus crucified for me.
But even could I see him die,
I could but see a little part
of that great love which, like a fire,
is always burning in his heart.
It is most wonderful to know
his love for me so free and sure;
but 'tis more wonderful to see
my love for him so faint and poor.
And yet I want to love thee, Lord;
O light the flame within my heart,
and I will love thee more and more,
until I see thee as thou art
Heronsgate (AM145)
W.W. How (1823-1897)
Music: English traditional melody arranged by R.V. Williams (1872-1958)
Poem
Covenant
I feel sometimes
we are his penance
for having made us. He
suffers in us and we partake
of his sufferings. What
to do, when it has been done
already? Where
to go, when the arrival
is as the departure? Circularity
is a mental condition, the
animals know nothing of it.
Seven times have passed
over him, and he is still here.
When will he return
from his human exile, and will
peace then be restored
to the flesh?
Often
I think that there is no end
to this torment and that the electricity
that convulses us is the fire
in which a god
burns and is not consumed.
R. S. Thomas (1913–2000)
Organ
Chorale
Jesus is Arrested
Reading
John 18.1–14
Jesus went out with his disciples across the Kidron valley to a place where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered. Now Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place, because Jesus often met there with his disciples. So Judas brought a detachment of soldiers together with police from the chief priests and the Pharisees, and they came there with lanterns and torches and weapons. Then Jesus, knowing all that was to happen to him, came forward and asked them, ‘For whom are you looking?’ They answered, ‘Jesus of Nazareth.’ Jesus replied, ‘I am he.’ Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them. When Jesus said to them, ‘I am he’, they stepped back and fell to the ground. Again he asked them, ‘For whom are you looking?’ And they said, ‘Jesus of Nazareth.’ Jesus answered, ‘I told you that I am he. So if you are looking for me, let these men go.’ This was to fulfil the word that he had spoken, ‘I did not lose a single one of those whom you gave me.’ Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it, struck the high priest’s slave, and cut off his right ear. The slave’s name was Malchus. Jesus said to Peter, ‘Put your sword back into its sheath. Am I not to drink the cup that the Father has given me?’
So the soldiers, their officer, and the Jewish police arrested Jesus and bound him. First they took him to Annas, who was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest that year. Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jews that it was better to have one person die for the people.
Poem
The Job, from The Book of Judas, 5
Why didn’t I get the job? The thought
Is something of an obsession.
If I’d been appointed I’d have changed
The image of the Apostolic Succession.
With my special talent who knows
What might have happened?
Would the church be facing
Its present state of spiritual collapse?
Peter was first choice.
Judas the traitor, Peter the rock:
Perish the labels; we soldiered together once.
Peter was able-bodied, quick-tempered, strong-voiced,
Good-hearted. But did he do the trick?
Or is the rock self-smashed into smithereens?
Why do the most living hearts
Attract the deadest has-beens?
How did that passionate adventure
Become a bad theological lecture?
How did the agony of loving eyes
Become a sordid political enterprise?
Although my soul is helplessly adrift
I have a few questions left.
There’ll be no answers till the polished men
Get the smell of blood from the hill again.
Brendan Kennelly (b.1936)
Organ
Variatio I
Peter’s First Denial
Reading
John 18.15–18
Simon Peter and another disciple followed Jesus. Since that disciple was known to the high priest, he went with Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest, but Peter was standing outside at the gate. So the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out, spoke to the woman who guarded the gate, and brought Peter in. The woman said to Peter, ‘You are not also one of this man’s disciples, are you?’ He said, ‘I am not.’ Now the slaves and the police had made a charcoal fire because it was cold, and they were standing round it and warming themselves. Peter also was standing with them and warming himself.
Organ
Variatio II
The High Priest Questions Jesus
Reflection
John 18.19–24
Then the high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and about his teaching. Jesus answered, ‘I have spoken openly to the world; I have always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where all the Jews come together. I have said nothing in secret. Why do you ask me? Ask those who heard what I said to them; they know what I said.’ When he had said this, one of the police standing nearby struck Jesus on the face, saying, ‘Is that how you answer the high priest?’ Jesus answered, ‘If I have spoken wrongly, testify to the wrong. But if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike me?’ Then Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.
Poem
Caiaphas
Caiaphas, Historians have noted your name.
You lived more than 2 millennia ago,
lived and breathed the Law,
rose to high fame as a priest, following
Annas, your father-in-law.
He sent the celebrated prisoner to you,
now high priest of the land.
How little you knew when you
judged it was expedient that
“One should die for all.”
Caiaphas, archeologists have found your box of bones.
A stone ossuary chiseled with proof of your position –
title, name, date – now it stands unlocked.
Mute testimony to the Gospels who mention you,
your palace and cold courtyard.
We read of your now believing servant, Malchus –
his ear healed by the touch of the
Prisoner’s shackled hand.
We read of your servant girls, squabbling like hens,
pecking Peter to denial before the rooster crowed again.
Caiaphas, anthropologists have examined your bones.
A box for bones, gathered by some
forgotten, blood-cursed son
after your censorious flesh had rotted away.
No eyes left that once had looked on Him
“who knew no sin”.
No evidence of a heart that beat with lawless pride.
No lungs with air to shout condemnation on the Creator.
Caiaphas, you strut briefly on a stage
in passion plays and movies,
lavishly robed in turban and ephod, but on Judgment Day
your box of bones will stand up and bow down
before Him, the Prisoner you condemned.
Joyce Carr Stedelbauer
Organ
Variatio III
Peter’s Second and Third Denials
Reading
John 18.25–27
Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. They asked him, ‘You are not also one of his disciples, are you?’ He denied it and said, ‘I am not.’ One of the slaves of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, ‘Did I not see you in the garden with him?’ Again Peter denied it, and at that moment the cock crowed.
Poem
The Denial of St Peter
On the edge
hands clenched,
sad eyes downcast
bitter fear forcing tight his lips
he holds his breath
he pauses
as the angry finger
of the state
points at his throat,
hard eyes searching Peter's
indecision
for rash conviction;
but she, she knows
has seen before
his adoring eyes, heard his
boastful voice
by the campfire
of the condemned.
Slowly he moves
toward the inevitable lie
as the bloody sun
stirs to song
the drowsy cock.
Steven Federle, after Caravaggio
Organ
Variatio IV
Jesus Before Pilate
Reflection
John 18.28–19.16
Then they took Jesus from Caiaphas to Pilate’s headquarters. It was early in the morning. They themselves did not enter the headquarters, so as to avoid ritual defilement and to be able to eat the Passover. So Pilate went out to them and said, ‘What accusation do you bring against this man?’ They answered, ‘If this man were not a criminal, we would not have handed him over to you.’ Pilate said to them, ‘Take him yourselves and judge him according to your law.’ The Jews replied, ‘We are not permitted to put anyone to death.’ (This was to fulfil what Jesus had said when he indicated the kind of death he was to die.)
Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, ‘Are you the King of the Jews?’ Jesus answered, ‘Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?’ Pilate replied, ‘I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?’ Jesus answered, ‘My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.’ Pilate asked him, ‘So you are a king?’ Jesus answered, ‘You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.’ Pilate asked him, ‘What is truth?’
After he had said this, he went out to the Jews again and told them, ‘I find no case against him. But you have a custom that I release someone for you at the Passover. Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?’ They shouted in reply, ‘Not this man, but Barabbas!’ Now Barabbas was a bandit.
Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. And the soldiers wove a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they dressed him in a purple robe. They kept coming up to him, saying, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ and striking him on the face. Pilate went out again and said to them, ‘Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no case against him.’ So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, ‘Here is the man!’ When the chief priests and the police saw him, they shouted, ‘Crucify him! Crucify him!’ Pilate said to them, ‘Take him yourselves and
crucify him; I find no case against him.’ The Jews answered him, ‘We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has claimed to be the Son of God.’
Now when Pilate heard this, he was more afraid than ever. He entered his headquarters again and asked Jesus, ‘Where are you from? But Jesus gave him no answer. Pilate therefore said to him, ‘Do you refuse to speak to me? Do you not know that I have power to release you, and power to crucify you?’ Jesus answered him, ‘You would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above; therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.’ From then on Pilate tried to release him, but the Jews cried out, ‘If you release this man, you are no friend of the emperor. Everyone who claims to be a king sets himself against the emperor.’
When Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus outside and sat on the judge’s bench at a place called The Stone Pavement, or in Hebrew Gabbatha. Now it was the day of Preparation for the Passover; and it was about noon. He said to the Jews, ‘Here is your King!’ They cried out, ‘Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him!’ Pilate asked them, ‘Shall I crucify your King?’ The chief priests answered, ‘We have no king but the emperor.’ Then he handed him over to them to be crucified.
Poem
Pilate
And then I tried to pass the buck;
but Herod, with astute aplomb,
politely, sent him back.
I tried to move the people
to accept he might be freed
this feast of The Passover.
‘Kill him! Kill him! Nail him
to the cross!’ They clamoured for
Barabbas, insurrectionist, a bandit
who’s attacked imperial rule.
‘Try Jesus for yourselves,’ I told the mob;
‘You judge him by your law.’
‘Kill him,’ they hollered louder,
‘Nail him to the cross!’
Then slimy priests, those holy rogues
of politics, began to turn the screws:
‘You must not fail to sentence Christ,
soi-disant King of the Jews.
Your masters wouldn’t like it much
if we should let them know
we caught a man supplanting Rome
and you have let him go.’
My basic job is keeping peace
and reverence for Rome. The man
was bad for both. I had to yield.
‘I find no fault in him,’ I cried,
and ordered water brought;
and, public gesture of defeat
(sound politics, I thought),
I washed these loving
histrionic hands.
The crowd surprised me, seized
the guilt of their demands.
You know
I am not weak. I could, I would
stand up for Jesus if I thought
that were the thing to do. Now
he is dead. He didn’t seem to care,
so why should you? How is your head,
my sweet?
Mervyn Morris (b.1937)
Organ
Variatio V
The Crucifixion
Reading
John 19.17–22
So they took Jesus; and carrying the cross by himself, he went out to what is called The Place of the Skull, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, with Jesus between them. Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross. It read, ‘Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.’ Many of the Jews read this inscription, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek. Then the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, ‘Do not write, “The King of the Jews”, but, “This man said, I am King of the Jews.”’ Pilate answered, ‘What I have written I have written.’
Organ
Variatio VI
Poem
And a Good Friday was had by all
You men there, keep those women back
and God Almighty he laid down
on the crossed timber and old Silenus
my offsider looked at me as if to say
nice work for soldiers, your mind’s not your own
once you sign that dotted line Ave Caesar
and all that malarkey Imperator Rex
well this Nazarene
didn’t make it any easier
really – not like the ones
who kick up a fuss so you can
do your block and take it out on them
Silenus held the spikes steady and I let fly
with the sledge-hammer, not looking
on the downswing trying hard not to hear
over the women’s wailing the bones give way
the iron shocking the dumb wood.
Orders is orders, I said after it was over
nothing personal you understand – we had a
drill-sergeant once thought he was God but he wasn’t
a patch on you
then we hauled on the ropes
and he rose in the hot air
like a diver just leaving the springboard, arms spread
so it seemed
over the whole damned creation
over the big men who must have had it in for him
and the curious ones who’ll watch anything if it’s free
with only the usual women caring anywhere
and a blind man in tears.
Bruce Dawe (b.1930)
Reflection
John 19.23–24
When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four parts, one for each soldier. They also took his tunic; now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from the top. So they said to one another, ‘Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see who will get it.’ This was to fulfil what the scripture says,
‘They divided my clothes among themselves,
and for my clothing they cast lots.’
And that is what the soldiers did.
Organ
Variatio VII
Reading
John 19.25–27
Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, here is your son.’ Then he said to the disciple, ‘Here is your mother.’ And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.
Organ
Variatio VIII
Poem
His Saviour’s Words, Going to the Cross
Have, have ye no regard, all ye
Who pass this way, to pity me
Who am a man of misery?
A man both bruis’d, and broke, and one
Who suffers not here for mine own
But for my friends’ transgression?
Ah! Sion’s Daughters, do not fear
The Cross, the Cords, the Nails, the Spear,
The Myrrh, the Gall, the Vinegar,
For Christ, your loving Saviour, hath
Drunk up the wine of God’s fierce wrath;
Only, there’s left a little froth,
Less for to taste, than for to shew
What bitter cups had been your due,
Had He not drank them up for you.
Robert Herrick (1591–1674)
The Death of Jesus
Reading
John 19.28–37
After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in order to fulfil the scripture), ‘I am thirsty.’ A jar full of sour wine was standing there. So they put a sponge full of the wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the wine, he said, ‘It is finished.’ Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
Since it was the day of Preparation, the Jews did not want the bodies left on the cross during the sabbath, especially because that sabbath was a day of great solemnity. So they asked Pilate to have the legs of the crucified men broken and the bodies removed. Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who had been crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out. (He who saw this has testified so that you also may believe. His testimony is true, and he knows that he tells the truth.) These things occurred so that the scripture might be fulfilled, ‘None of his bones shall be broken.’ And again another passage of scripture says, ‘They will look on the one whom they have pierced.’
Organ
Variatio IX
Poem
Joseph of Arimathea
Sometimes, avoiding trouble, we accept defeat.
(Painful sometimes, being discreet).
Soon Sabbath now. The corpse of Christ
ought to come down by then.
Which means pulling strings again.
I think I’ll bury him where I
had planned to have my own bones lie.
Thank God, there’s something I can do.
Forgive me, Lord, for not proclaiming you.
Mervyn Morris (b.1937)
Organ
Variatio X
The Collect
Almighty and ever living God,
in your tender love towards us
you sent your Son to take our nature upon him,
and to suffer death on the cross;
grant that we may follow the example of his great humility
and share in his glorious resurrection:
through him who lives and reigns
with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God now and for ever.
Amen.
Organ
Variatio XI
Period of Silence
Reflection
Christ Has No Body
Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.
Teresa of Avila (1515–1582
Hymn
When I survey the wondrous cross
on which the Prince of glory died,
my richest gain I count but loss,
and pour contempt on all my pride.
Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast
save in the cross of Christ, my God;
all the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them through his blood.
See, from his head, his hands, his feet,
sorrow and love flow mingled down;
did e'er such love and sorrow meet,
or thorns compose so rich a crown!
His dying crimson, like a robe,
spreads o’er his body on the tree:
then am I dead to all the globe,
and all the globe is dead to me.
Were the whole realm of nature mine,
that were a present far too small.
Love so amazing, so divine,
demands my soul, my life, my all.
AM 157
I. Watts (1674-1748)
Music: Rockingham (AM157i)
Melody: Tunbridge from A Second Supplement to Psalmody in Miniature, c.1780 adapted by Edward Miller (1731-1807)
The Liturgy of the Sacrament
As the Eucharist is never celebrated on Good Friday, communion is distributed from the Reserved Sacrament of bread and wine which was blessed at the Maundy Thursday service.
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 it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.
And lead us not into temptation;
but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom,
the power and the glory are yours,
Now and forever. Amen.
Giving of Communion
Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Blessed are those who are called to his supper.
Lord, I am not worthy to receive you,
but only say the word, and I shall be healed.
If you wish to receive communion please come forwards in your own time. During the distribution the chant Jesus remember me, when you come into your kingdom is sung. Please join in if you wish.
Jesus remember me when you come into your Kingdom.
Jesus remember me when you come into your Kingdom.
The Conclusion
The Prayer
Most merciful God
who by the death and resurrection of your son Jesus Christ,
delivered and saved the world.
Grant that by faith in him who suffered on the cross
we may triumph in the power of his victory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
The Gospel of the burial of Christ
John 19.38–42
After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, though a secret one because of his fear of the Jews, asked Pilate to let him take away the body of Jesus. Pilate gave him permission; so he came and removed his body. Nicodemus, who had at first come to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about a hundred pounds. They took the body of Jesus and wrapped it with the spices in linen cloths, according to the burial custom of the Jews. Now there was a garden in the place where he was crucified, and in the garden there was a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid. And so, because it was the Jewish day of Preparation, and the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.
You are welcome to remain seated in prayer and reflection. When you are ready please leave quietly.