Click here to listen to a reading of the Passion of Christ according to St Matthew (26:14-27:66, from the New International Version) or click here to watch a video of this reading (the reading starts at about 26 minutes).

For centuries, Christians have combined the celebration of Palm Sunday with the reading of the Passion Story. I did not grow up in a church that did this. We had “Hallelujah’s” on Palm Sunday as Jesus rides triumphally into Jerusalem, and then “Christ is Risen Indeed” on Easter Sunday. In between, there was nothing. But our tradition is to set together these two sets of narratives to drive home the stark reality of how easily we humans can go from ‘Hallelujah!’ to ‘Crucify him!’ within days. The reading takes about 25 minutes. It is the only time each year that we read the entire Passion Story, and so well worth listening to or watching.

Featured image by Jyoti Sahi (Indian, 1944–), Way of the Cross, 2009. Oil on canvas. From: https://www.imb.org/2017/04/12/journey-cross-artists-visualize-christs-passion-part-2/

Today, instead of a sermon, we listened to a reading of the Passion of Christ, from Mark chapters 14 and 15, using the JB Phillips translation. You can listen to the audio recording of the reading here. Or you can watch the video of the reading on Facebook here (the reading starts at 30 minutes). The reading takes 27 minutes.

Below are a few photos of me reading and a composite photo of our in-house congregation.