Good Friday service

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An act of worship for Good Friday, or Holy Week, including suggested hymns, Bible readings, dramatic character pieces and accompanying prayers.

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Extract:

Good Friday service (Marjorie Dobson/Andrew Pratt)

(If this is used as a public act of worship, there may be those who would like to stay for a time of meditation after the service has ended. It may be helpful to ask that everyone leaves in silence, so that those who wish to stay could do so without disturbance.)

Hymn 173 - My song is love unknown

Prayers
Introduction -

The events of Holy Week are all a preparation for Good Friday and Easter Sunday. On Palm Sunday, there was cheering and palm waving, and happy people welcoming a hero, a new king. But Jesus knew he was entering a danger zone, going into the enemy headquarters - and he wasn't keeping a low profile. It was inevitable that he would create trouble for himself.

Causing chaos in the Temple courtyard by wrecking the traders' stalls was not a good start. Then he took meals with people not accepted in Jewish society and kept making inflammatory statements and criticising the authorities. He was also accused of blasphemy - no wonder they were out to destroy him.

It was not expected that he would be betrayed by one of his own men, but nobody cared, as long as they could get their hands on him. So Jesus was arrested and pushed around from one authority to another until his enemies could get him condemned to death. In the end it was the crowd, incited by these enemies, that called for his crucifixion. So he was flogged and spat upon and mocked and forced to carry his own cross, then nailed to it and crucified.

The shadow of that cross extends across this Holy Week and is inescapable. In this service we look at four characters that were in the shadow of that cross on the day that Jesus died.

Two of these people, his mother Mary and Mary Magdalene, are named in the gospel story, so we know they were there. Another one is a chief priest, one of a number who were there to make sure they saw Jesus die. The other character is Joseph, Mary's husband and the man known as the father of Jesus. Most people believe that Joseph was much older than Mary and that he had died before Jesus began his ministry. But there is another tradition that claims that Joseph was still alive, but not living with Mary and the family. It is this Joseph that we see here.

The characters tell the story of their feelings after the death of Jesus. There will be a short silence, then a prayer after each character has spoken.

Reading - Mark 15.1-20

Hymn - In the cross of Christ I glory
Reading - Mark 15.29-32

A Chief Priest
Ha! We've got him this time. It's all over! Finished! Done!

The whole sorry, sordid episode has come to an end.

And, with their leader gone, it won't take long to round up the rest of his followers and dispose of them too. The crowd is on our side now. It won't take them long to forget about him!

So, once the Sabbath is over and the crowds start to drift home, we can get the situation back under control. He may have criticised us, ridiculed us - but the ones who followed him wouldn't dare do that themselves. They're far too frightened. Used to hiding behind him and sniggering at us, but they won't have the guts to tackle us head-on on their own.

They're all just followers. A flock of sheep meekly meandering behind the shepherd, with no idea what to do, or where to go, if he isn't in the lead.

It's ironic! Apparently he used that image in one of his teaching sessions. 'I am the good shepherd.' Oh, yes! We heard all about that. We had our spies everywhere, particularly in this last week. We knew where they all were, who they were with and what he was saying. We'd been after him for a very long time.

It was clear he was dangerous, although we didn't recognise that right at the start. At first we thought it was because he'd come under the influence of his cousin, John.

Now John was always trouble. Living in the desert the way he did. Dressing like a tramp. Denouncing us and all we stood for. But, most dangerously of all, upsetting Herod. He had to go - and he did!

We thought Jesus might go into hiding then, but oh, no! He carried on. His healing stunts we could just about cope with - although he did seem to do an extraordinary number of them on the Sabbath - probably just to infuriate us. It was reported that he did other miracles, but it was easy to cast doubt on them. And his teaching was fine as long as he kept to vague generalities. The problem was that he didn't!

He was fearless in attacking us - in attacking all of us who had any religious authority. 'Don't do as they do,' he said. 'They're hypocrites!' he said. And you know what crowds are like - they love a rebel, a usurper of authority. We had to stop him.

I must admit we were surprised when we heard he was heading for Jerusalem. If he'd had any sense at all, he should have known it was the one place to avoid. But we soon realised why he'd come - to stir up the crowds against us, of course.

That procession into the city was a stroke of genius from whoever organised it for him. Restless crowds in a festive mood - they'll start cheering at anything, once they're given a lead. And he made a meal of it! Riding a donkey, I ask you! He knew all about the symbolism of a king - and so did the people who started the cheering.

So, back at our headquarters, we set things moving very swiftly.

He caught us out by his outrageous behaviour in the Temple - throwing out the traders. But then we hadn't expected him to show his face there. After that, we moved even more quickly and with a bit of bribery we even got one of his own followers to lead us to him. They say the man had an attack of conscience and hung himself afterwards, but that's no fault of ours.

And, once we had him in our clutches, there was no escape.

It wasn't a straightforward matter to get him condemned to death - neither Herod, nor Pilate, wanted to commit themselves. But, with a bit of judicious stirring amongst the crowds, we managed to get them baying for his blood and then Pilate had no alternative but to make the big decision.

So we watched as they scourged and beat him and forced him to carry his cross. We were perfectly happy that the soldiers mocked his supposed kingship, but not happy at all when Pilate had an inscription put on the cross. 'Jesus of Nazareth. The King of the Jews'. That was his way of stamping his authority on the situation, of course, and we sent a deputation to him, but he wouldn't go back on it.

In the end, it didn't really matter.

We watched him die!

We stood and laughed at him, as he had laughed at us. Where was his power now? Nothing he could do could get himself off that cross. The soldiers had seen to that. One good thing about the Romans - when they put a man to death, he doesn't escape.

We have won! I knew we would in the end!

We'll have no more trouble from Jesus of Nazareth!

Prayer -

Continues...