You will prosper, my servant,
you will be raised up and highly exalted.

Even as the crowds were appalled after seeing you —
you were so disfigured as to no longer look human —
so will the crowds be amazed at you,
and rulers will stand speechless before you;
for they will see something never told
and witness something never heard,
“Who would believe what we have heard?
To whom has the might of YHWH been revealed?”

You grew up like a sapling before us,
like a root in parched soil.
There was no beauty in you, we saw you without esteem;
there was nothing to attract us.
You were rejected and despised by all;
you know suffering, and you are acquainted with sorrow.
People avoided your gaze;
we held you in low esteem.

Yet you bore our infirmities
and carried our suffering.
We thought you were being punished,
struck by YHWH, and brought low.
But you were pierced for our offenses,
crushed for our sins;
upon you lies a chastening which brings us wholeness,
and through your wounds we are healed.

All of us, like sheep, have gone astray:
each of us goes our own way.
But YHWH laid upon you
the guilt of us all.
Though treated harshly, you bore it humbly
and never opened your mouth.
You were like a lamb led to slaughter, or a sheep before shearers:
you were silent and never opened your mouth.

Taken by force and condemned,
who would ever have foreseen your destiny?
You were taken from the land of the living,
and fatally struck down for the sin of the people.
You were buried with the wicked
and entombed with the rich,
though you had done no wrong,
and deceit was not found in your mouth.
But YHWH was satisfied to crush you and put you to grief:
if you give your life as an atonement for sin
you will see your descendants,
you will prolong your days,
and the will of YHWH will prevail through you.

Through your suffering,
you will see contentment and light.
By your knowledge, my Righteous One, my servant,
you will justify many
by taking their guilt upon yourself.
Therefore, I will grant you a reward among the great,
and you will divide the spoils with the mighty;
for you surrendered yourself to death
and allowed yourself to be counted among the wicked,
while you were taking away the sins of many
and interceding for sinners.

Response: Abba-God! / I place my life in Your hands.

In You, Adonai, I take shelter; / never let me be disgraced.
In Your righteousness deliver me,
Into Your hands I commit my spirit, / You have redeemed me, Adonai.
R: Abba-God! / I place my life in Your hands.

To every one of my oppressors I am contemptible, / loathsome to my neighbors,
To my friends a thing of fear. / Those who see me in the street hurry past me;
I am forgotten, / as good as dead in their hearts, something discarded.
R: Abba-God! / I place my life in Your hands.

But I put my trust in You, Adonai, / I say, “You are my God.”
My days are in Your hands, / rescue me from the hands of my enemies and persecutors.
R: Abba-God! / I place my life in Your hands.

Let Your face smile on your faithful one, / save me in Your love.
Be strong, let your heart be bold, / all you who hope in Our God!
R: Abba-God! / I place my life in Your hands.

Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens
— Jesus, the Firstborn of God —
let us hold fast to our profession of faith.
For we do not have a high priest
who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses,
but one who was tempted in every way that we are, yet never sinned.
So let us confidently approach the throne of grace
to receive mercy and favor, and find help in time of need.

In the days when he was in the flesh,
Jesus offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to God,
who was able to save him from death,
and Jesus was heard because of his reverence.
Firstborn though he was,
Jesus learned to obey through suffering.
But having been made perfect, Jesus became, for all who obey,
the source of eternal salvation.

NOTE: The Passion reading is divided into seven speaking roles:

1) Narrator
2) Jesus
3) Peter
4) Pilate
5) Speaker One (cohort, guard, or soldiers)
6) Speaker Two (attendants or others)
7) Speaker Three (authorities or chief priests)

Where possible the roles should be distributed among seven readers. Where this is not pastorally possible,
the three Speaker roles could be proclaimed by a single person.

NARRATOR: After Jesus prayed for the disciples,
he left with them and crossed the Kidron Valley.
There was a garden there, and Jesus and the disciples entered it.
Judas, the traitor, knew the place well,
because Jesus often met there with his disciples.
Judas led the Roman cohort to the place,
along with some Temple guards sent by the chief priests and Pharisees.
All were armed and carried lanterns and torches.
Then Jesus, aware of everything that was going to take place,
stepped forward and said to them:

JESUS: Who are you looking for?

SPEAKER ONE: Are you Jesus of Nazareth?

JESUS: I am.

NARRATOR: Now Judas, the traitor, was with them.
When Jesus said, “I am,” they all drew back and fell to the ground.
Again, Jesus asked them:

JESUS: Who are you looking for?

SPEAKER ONE: Jesus of Nazareth.

JESUS: I have already told you that I am the one you want.
If I am the one you are looking for, let the others go.

NARRATOR: This was to fulfill what he had spoken:
“Of those you gave me, I have not lost a single one.”
Simon Peter, who had a sword,  drew it
and struck the high priest’s attendant, cutting off his right ear.
The name of the attendant was Malchus.
Jesus said to Peter:

JESUS: Put your sword back in its sheath.
Am I not to drink the cup Abba God has given me?

NARRATOR: Then the cohort and its captain and the Temple guards
seized and bound Jesus.
They took him first to Annas.
Annas was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year.
It was Caiaphas who had advised the Temple authorities
that it was better to have one person die on behalf of the people.

Simon Peter and the other disciple followed Jesus.
This disciple, who was known to the high priest,
entered his courtyard with Jesus, while Peter hung back at the gate.
So the disciple known to the high priest went back
and spoke to the doorkeeper, and brought Peter inside.
The doorkeeper said:

SPEAKER TWO: Are you not one of this guy’s followers?

PETER: No, I am not.

NARRATOR: Now the night was cold,
so the attendants and guards had lit a charcoal fire and were warming themselves.
Peter was with them as well, keeping warm.

The high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teachings.
Jesus answered:

JESUS: I have spoken publicly to everyone;
I have always taught in synagogues and in the Temple area
where the whole Jewish people congregates.
I have said nothing in secret.
So why do you question me?
Ask those who have heard me.
Ask them what I said to them — they know what I said.

NARRATOR: When Jesus said this, one of the guards standing by slapped him and said:

SPEAKER ONE: Is this how you answer the high priest?

JESUS: If I have said anything wrong, point it out;
but if I am right in what I said, why do you strike me?

NARRATOR: Then Annas sent him, still shackled, to Caiaphas the high priest.
Meanwhile, Simon Peter was still standing there and warming himself.
Others asked him:

SPEAKER TWO: Are you not one of his disciples?

PETER: I am not.

NARRATOR: One of the attendants of the high priest,
a relative of the attendant whose ear Peter had severed, spoke up:

SPEAKER TWO: Did I not see you in the garden with him?

NARRATOR: Again, Peter denied it. At that moment a rooster crowed.

At daybreak, they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the Praetorium.
The Temple authorities did not enter the Praetorium,
for they would have become ritually unclean and unable to eat the Passover Seder.
So Pilate went out to them and asked:

PILATE: What charges do you bring against this person?

SPEAKER THREE: We would not have brought him to you if he were not a criminal.

PILATE: Take him yourselves, and judge him by your own Law.

SPEAKER THREE: We do not have the power to put anyone to death.

NARRATOR: This was to fulfill what Jesus had said about the way he was going to die.
So Pilate reentered the Praetorium and summoned Jesus:

PILATE: Are you the King of the Jews?

JESUS: Do you say this of your own accord, or have others told you about me?

PILATE: Am I Jewish? It is your own people and the chief priests
who hand you over to me.
What have you done?

JESUS: My realm is not of this world;
if it belonged to this world,  my people would have fought
to keep me out of the hands of the Temple authorities.
No, my realm is not of this world.

PILATE: So you are a King?

JESUS: You say I am a king.
I was born and came into the world for one purpose
— to bear witness to the truth.
Everyone who seeks the truth hears my voice.

PILATE: Truth? What is truth?

NARRATOR: With that, Pilate went outside and spoke to the people:

PILATE: I find no guilt in him.
But, according to your custom, I always release a prisoner at the Passover.
Do you want me to release the ‘King of the Jews’?

NARRATOR: They answered:

ALL: Not him. We want Barabbas!

NARRATOR: Barabbas was a robber.
So Pilate ordered that Jesus be flogged.
Then the soldiers wove a crown out of thorns and put it on his head,
and dressed him in a purple robe.
They went up to him repeatedly and said:

SPEAKER ONE: All hail the King of the Jews!

NARRATOR: And they struck him in the face.
Pilate came outside once more and said to the crowd:

PILATE: Look, I will bring him out here to make you understand that I find no guilt in him.

NARRATOR: So Jesus came out wearing the purple robe and the crown of thorns,
and Pilate said:

PILATE: Look upon the one you accuse!

NARRATOR: When the chief priests and the Temple guards saw Jesus, they shouted:

ALL: Crucify him! Crucify him!

PILATE: Do it yourself. I find no reason to condemn him.

SPEAKER THREE: We have a law that says he ought to die
because he claimed to be the Only Begotten of God.

NARRATOR: When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid.
He went back into the Praetorium and asked Jesus:

PILATE: Where do you come from?

NARRATOR: Jesus did not answer.

PILATE: You refuse to speak?
Bear in mind that I have the power to release you —
and the power to crucify you.

JESUS: You would have no authority over me unless it had been given to you by God.
Therefore the person who handed me over to you has the greater sin.

NARRATOR: Upon hearing this, Pilate sought to set Jesus free.
But the crowd shouted:

ALL: If you set him free, you are no ‘friend of Caesar.’
Anyone who claims to be a king defies Caesar.

NARRATOR: Hearing these words, Pilate took Jesus outside
and seated himself on the judge’s seat at the place called the Pavement
— “Gabbatha,” in Hebrew.
Now it was almost noon on Preparation Day for the Passover.
Pilate said to the people:

PILATE: Here is your king!

ALL: Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!

PILATE: Do you want me to crucify your king?

SPEAKER THREE: We have no king but Caesar!

NARRATOR: Then Pilate handed Jesus over to them to be crucified.
So they took Jesus, carrying his own cross,
to what is called the Place of the Skull — in Hebrew, “Golgotha.”

There they crucified him, along with two others, one on either side of Jesus.
Pilate wrote a notice and had it put on the cross; it read: “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.”
The notice, in Hebrew, Greek and Latin, was read by many people,
because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city.
The chief priests said to Pilate:

SPEAKER THREE: Do not write ‘King of the Jews,’
but, ‘This one said, I am King of the Jews.’

PILATE: I have written what I have written.

NARRATOR: After the soldiers had crucified Jesus,
they took his clothing and divided it into four pieces,
one piece for each soldier.
They also took the seamless robe.
The soldiers said to one another:

SPEAKER ONE: Let us not tear it. We can throw dice to see who will get it.

NARRATOR: This happened in order to fulfill the scripture,
“They divided my garments among them,
and for my clothing, they cast lots.”
And this is what they did.

Standing close to Jesus’ cross were his mother;
his mother’s sister, Mary, the wife of Clopas; and Mary of Magdala.
When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing there,
he said to his mother:

JESUS: Here is your son.

NARRATOR: Then he said to his disciple:

JESUS: Here is your mother.

NARRATOR: From that moment, the disciple took her into his household.
After this, Jesus knew that now all was completed,
and to fulfill scripture perfectly, he said:

JESUS: I am thirsty.

NARRATOR: There was a jar of cheap wine nearby,
so they put a sponge soaked in the wine on a hyssop stick
and raised it to his lips.
Jesus took the wine and said:

JESUS: It is finished.

NARRATOR: Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

Since it was Preparation Day,
the Temple authorities asked Pilate
to let them to break the legs of those crucified,
and take their bodies from the crosses.
They requested this to prevent the bodies
remaining on the cross during the Sabbath,
since that particular Sabbath was a solemn feast day.

So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first one
and then the other who had been crucified with Jesus.
But when they came to Jesus, they found that he was already dead,
so they did not break his legs.

One of the soldiers, however, pierced Jesus’ side with a lance,
and immediately blood and water poured out.
This testimony has been given by an eyewitness whose word is reliable;
the witness knows that this testimony is the truth, so that you will believe.
These things were done to fulfill the scripture,
“Not one of his bones will be broken.”
And again, another scripture says,
“They will look on the one whom they have pierced.”

After this, Joseph of Arimathea, a disciple of Jesus
— but a secret one, for fear of the Temple authorities —
asked Pilate for permission to remove the body of Jesus,
and Pilate granted it.
So Joseph came and took it away.
Nicodemus came as well
— the same one who had first come to Jesus by night —
and he brought about one hundred pounds of spices,
a mixture of myrrh and aloes.
They took the body of Jesus and wrapped it with the spices in linen cloths,
according to the Jewish burial custom.
There was a garden in the place where Jesus had been crucified,
and in the garden was a new tomb where no one had ever been buried.
Since it was the day before the Sabbath and the tomb was nearby,
they buried Jesus there.