Good Friday, Part 02

The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John

(continued)

Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas to the Praetorium - now it was daybreak - and they did not go into the Praetorium so that they would not be defiled, but might eat the Passover. So Pilate went out to them and said, "What charge do you bring against this man?" They answered and said to him, "If He were not an evildoer, we would not have handed him up to you." Then Pilate said to them, "You take Him and pass judgment Him according to your law!" The Judeans said to him, "It is not permitted for us to put anyone to death" - to fulfill what Jesus had said when he indicated the kind of death He would die.

Then Pilate entered the Praetorium again, and called Jesus, and said to Him, "Are you the King of the Judeans?" Jesus answered, "Are you saying this from yourself or did others tell you about me?" Pilate answered, "Am I a Judean? Your own nation and your chief priests 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 servants would be struggling to keep me from being handed over to the Judeans. But now my kingdom is not from here." Pilate then said to Him, "So you are a king!" Jesus replied, "You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world – to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice." Pilate said, "What is truth?"

And when he had said this he went back outside to the Judeans and said to them, "I find no cause of crime in Him. But you have a custom that I release someone to you at the Passover; so do you want me to release for you the 'King of the Judeans'?" They shouted again, saying, "Not this man, but Barabbas" (now Barabbas was an insurrectionist).

So then Pilate took Jesus and had Him flogged. And the soldiers plaited a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and they clothed Him in a purple garment. And they came up to Him again and again and said, "Hail, King of the Judeans!" And they struck Him repeatedly.

Again Pilate went out and said to them, "Look, I am bringing Him out to you that you may know I find no cause of crime in Him." Then Jesus came outside, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple garment. And he said to them, "Behold, the man!" When the chief priests and their officers saw him, they shouted out, "Crucify Him! Crucify Him!" Pilate said to them, "You take Him and crucify Him; for I find no cause of crime in Him!" The Judeans answered him, "We have a law, and according to our law He ought to die, for He made Himself the Son of God."

When Pilate heard this word, he became more afraid, and went again into the Praetorium, and said to Jesus, "Where are you from?" But Jesus gave him no answer. So Pilate said to Him, "Do you refuse to talk to me? Do you know not that I have the authority to release you and the authority to crucify you?" Jesus answered, "You would have no authority at all over me unless it was given you from above. Therefore he who handed me over to you has the greater sin."

From then on, Pilate sought to release Him. But the Judeans shouted out, saying, "If you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar! Everyone who makes himself out to be a king opposes Caesar!" When Pilate therefore heard those words he brought Jesus out and sat on the judge's seat in a place called Lithostrotos, or in Hebrew Gabbatha - now it was the Preparation for the Passover and about the sixth hour. And he said to the Judeans, "Behold, your king!" Then these shouted out, "Away with Him! Away with Him! Crucify Him!" Pilate said to them, "Shall I crucify your king?" The chief priests answered, "We have no king but Caesar!"

Then he handed Him over to them to be crucified. Therefore they took Jesus; and carrying the cross by Himself, He went out to the place called 'The Place of the Skull' (called in Hebrew Golgotha), where they crucified Him, and with Him two others: on the one side and on the other, in the middle of them Jesus. Pilate also had a notice written and placed on the cross. Now it was written: 'JESUS THE NAZARENE, THE KING OF THE JUDEANS'. Then many of the Judeans read this inscription, becuase 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 Judeans said to Pilate, "Do not write, 'The King of the Judeans,' but, 'He said, "I am king of the Judeans."'" Pilate answered, "What I have written, I have written."

Now when the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took His garments and made four parts, one for each soldier, and also the tunic (now the tunic was seamless, woven from the top in one piece). Therefore the soldiers said to one another, "Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see who will get it" - to fulfill the scripture that says, "They divided my garments among themselves, and for my clothing they cast lots." Therefore the soldiers did these things.

Now standing beside the cross of Jesus were His mother, and the sister of His mother, Mary of Clopas, and Mary the Magdalene. When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to his mother, "Woman, behold, your son!" Then He said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother!" And from that very hour that disciple took her to his own.

After this Jesus, knowing that all things were now consummated, said (in order to consummate the scripture), "I thirst!" A jar full of sour wine was there, so they put a sponge soaked in sour wine on hyssop and brought it to His mouth. Therefore when He had received the sour wine, Jesus said, "Consummated!" And He bowed His head and gave over the spirit.

(Here all kneel and pause for a few moments.)

Then the Judeans, because it was the Preparation, so that the bodies should not stay on the crosses on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), asked Pilate that their legs be broken and they be taken down. So 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; but one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and blood and water came out immediately. And he who has seen gave witness, and his witness is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you also may believe. These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled, "Not a bone of his shall be broken," and again another scripture says, "They shall look on him whom they pierced."

After this, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus (but secretly for fear of the Judeans), asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus; and Pilate granted permission, so he went and took away His body. And Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes - about a hundred litra. Then they took the body of Jesus, and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the custom of the Judeans to prepare for burial. Now at the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden was a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid down. So there they laid Jesus, because of the Preparation of the Judeans, for the tomb was nearby.

The Improperia

V: My people, what have I done to you? In what have I grieved you? Answer me!
V: Because I led you out of the land of Egypt, you have prepared a cross for your Savior.

Agios o Theos!
Sanctus Deus!
Agios Ischyros!
Sanctus Fortis!
Agios Athanatos, eleison imas.
Sanctus Immortalis, miserere nobis.

V: Because I led you out through the desert for forty years, and fed you with manna from heaven, and brought you to an excellent land, you have prepared a cross for your Savior.

Agios o Theos...

V: What more ought I to do for you that I have not done? I planted you, indeed, my most beautiful vineyard, and you have become exceedingly bitter to me; for in my thirst you gave me vinegar to drink, and with a lance you have pierced the side of your Savior.

Agios o Theos...

V: For your sake I scourged Egypt and killed its first-born; and you have delivered Me to be scourged.
R: My people, what have I done to you? In what have I grieved you? Answer me!
V: I led you out of Egypt and drowned Pharaoh in the Red Sea, and you have delivered Me to the chief priests.
R: My people...
V: I opened the sea for you, and you have opened my side with a spear.
R: My people...
V: I went before you in a pillar of cloud, and you have led me to the praetorium of Pilate.
R: My people...
V: I fed you with manna in the desert, and you have beaten me with blows and scourges.
R: My people...
V: I gave you the water of salvation from the rock to drink, and you have given me gall and vinegar.
R: My people...
V: For you I struck down the kings of the Canaanites, and you have struck my head with a reed.
R: My people...
V: I gave you a royal scepter, and you have given my head a crown of thorns.
R: My people...
V: I have exalted you with great strength, and you hanged me on the gibbet of the cross.
R: My people...

We adore your Cross, O Lord: and we praise and glorify your holy Resurrection; for behold, by the wood of the Cross, joy has come into the whole world.
(Psalm 66 [67]:2) May God have mercy on us, and bless us; may He cause the light of His countenance to shine upon us, and have mercy on us.
V: We adore your cross...