Palm Sunday, 14th April 2019

The elders of the people and the chief priests and scribes rose, and they brought Jesus before Pilate. Pilate put to him this question, ‘Are you the king of the Jews?’ He replied, ‘It is you who say it.’ Pilate then said to the chief priests and the crowd, ‘I find no case against this man. Nor has Herod either, since he has sent him back to us. As you can see, the man has done nothing that deserves death, so I shall have him flogged and then let him go.’

But as one man they howled, ‘Away with him! Give us Barabbas!’ In his desire to set Jesus free, Pilate addressed them again, but they shouted back, ‘Crucify him! Crucify him!’ And for the third time he spoke to them, but they kept on shouting at the top of their voices, demanding that he should be crucified.

Pilate then handed Jesus over to them to deal with as they pleased. As they were leading him away they seized on a man, Simon from Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, and made him shoulder the cross and carry it behind Jesus. Large numbers of people followed him, but Jesus turned to them and said, ‘Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep rather for yourselves and for your children’.

When they reached the place called The Skull, there they crucified him and the two criminals, one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing.’ Above him there was an inscription: ‘This is the King of the Jews’. It was now about the sixth hour and the sun’s light failed, so that darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour. The veil of the Sanctuary was torn right down the middle. Jesus cried out in a loud voice saying, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.’ With these words he breathed his last.