For love alone…
Almighty father
Look with mercy on this your family
For which our Lord Jesus Christ
Was content to be betrayed
And given up into the hands of wicked men
And to suffer death upon the cross
Who is alive and glorified
With you and the Holy Spirit
One God now and for ever…Amen

Our arrival in Jerusalem was fantastic, burning with energy and colour, greenery and song…we recognized many who had brushed up against us in the long journey to that moment, the lame. crippled, blind, sick, all healed, bleeding women and deathly children all dancing around us crying hosanna. Jesus knew them and I think he was delighted, happy.

They made him carry his own cross, they dressed him in cloths we’ve never seen on him and his face covered, streaming blood, a crown, a mockery cutting his flesh, thorns, continued torture with the weight of a heavy cross, falling, uneven ground, the humiliation of the tourist and local crowd looking for their money’s worth, an unnatural human god!

The cross marks the spot…nails driven through upper ankles and wrists.„.not the hands or feet because his sheer weight would cause the nails to rip his flesh open and fall to the ground…they want him to stay up there, they’ve done this before, the stench of rotting flesh around bears testimony to this truth…Jesus my friend…do something…this is unbearable, he is lifted up, the screaming of hundreds cease, and we all stand silent…waiting, expectant for so many reasons and hopes…

There’s a storm brewing…you can feel can see him dying, body collapsing by its own weight…

Lighting and the roll of thunder, a soldier pierced his appointed, once again, we are powerless…

Lord have mercy upon us…
What have we done…
What has God done….greater love has no one, that they lay down their life for their friends…

Is this it…love?