Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord : 10th April 2022

The whole assembly then arose 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!’ Pilate was anxious to set Jesus free and 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, they crucified him there and the criminals also, 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 with the sun eclipsed, a darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour. The veil of the Temple was torn right down the middle; and when Jesus had cried out in a loud voice, he said, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.’ With these words he breathed his last..