The Passion of the Messiah and Leading Discourses
~ The New Jerusalem Bible ~
With Some Corrections and Translation Notes
 Appropriate Hymns Interspersed
Concluded with a Litany of Prayers

Consider the audio book The Dolorous Passion by mystic Anne Catherine Emmerich, narrated by Roger Basick.  Mel Gibson’s Passion of the the Christ was based upon this mystical classic, or read it here.

Music appropriate to reading these selections may be streamed immediately from this link.

The true vine

   John 15:1. I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.  2. Every branch in me that bears no fruit he cuts away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes to make it bear even more.
   3. You are clean (pruned) already, by means of the word that I have spoken to you.  4. Remain in me, as I in you.  As a branch cannot bear fruit all by itself, unless it remains part of the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me.

   5. I am the vine, you are the branches.  Whoever remains in me, with me in him, bears fruit in plenty; for cut off from me you can do nothing.  6. Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a branch, and withers; these branches are collected and thrown on the fire and are burnt.  7. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for whatever you please and you will get it.  8. It is to the glory of my Father that you should bear much fruit and be my disciples.

   9. I have loved you just as the Father has loved me.  Remain in my love.  10. If you keep my commandments you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.  11. I have told you this so that my own joy may be in you and your joy be complete. 

   12. This is my commandment: love one another, as I have loved you.  13. No one can have greater love than to lay down his life for his friends.  14. You are my friends, if you do what I command you.  15. I shall no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know the master’s business; I call you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have learned from my Father.

   16. You did not choose me, no, I chose you; and I commissioned you to go out and to bear fruit, fruit that will last; so that the Father will give you anything you ask him in my name.  17. My command to you is to love one another.

 

The disciples and the world

   18. If the world hates you, you must realize that it hated me before it hated you.  19. If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you do not belong to the world, because my choice of you has drawn you out of the world, that is why the world hates you.

   20. Remember the words I said to you: A servant is not greater than his master.  If they persecuted me, they will persecute you too; if they kept my word, they will keep yours as well.  21. But it will be on my account that they will do all this to you, because they do not know the one who sent me.  22. If I had not come, if I had not spoken to them, they would have been blameless; but as it is they have no excuse for their sin. 

   23. Anyone who hates me hates my Father.  24. If I had not performed such works among them as no one else has ever done, they would be blameless; but as it is, in spite of what they have seen, they hate both me and my Father.  25. But all this was only to fulfill the words written in their Law: They hated me without reason.

   26. When the Paraclete comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who issues from the Father, he will be my witness.  27. And you too will be witnesses, because you have been with me from the beginning.

UMH Hymn 292 “What Wondrous Love Is This”

   John 16:1. I have told you all this so that you may not fall away.  2. They will expel you from the synagogues, and indeed the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is doing a holy service to Eloah.  3. They will do these things because they have never known either the Father or me.  4. But I have told you all this, so that when the time for it comes you may remember that I told you.

 

The coming of the Paraclete

   I did not tell you this from the beginning, because I was with you; 5. but now I am going to the one who sent me.  Not one of you asks, “Where are you going?”  6. Yet you are sad at heart because I have told you this.  7. Still, I am telling you the truth: it is for your own good that I am going, because unless I go, the Paraclete will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.  8. And when he comes, he will show the world how wrong it was, about sin, and about who was in the right, and about judgment: 9. about sin: in that they refuse to believe in me; 10. about who was in the right: in that I am going to the Father and you will see me no more;  11. about judgment: in that the prince of this world is already condemned.

   12. I still have many things to say to you but they would be too much for you to bear now. 13. However, when the Spirit of truth comes he will lead you to the complete truth, since he will not be speaking of his own accord, but will say only what he has been told; and he will reveal to you the things to come. 14. He will glorify me, since all he reveals to you will be taken from what is mine.  15. Everything the Father has is mine; that is why I said: all he reveals to you will be taken from what is mine.

 

Yahshua to return very soon

   16. In a short time you will no longer see me, and then a short time later you will see me again.  17. Then some of his disciples said to one another, “What does he mean, “In a short time you will no longer see me, and then a short time later you will see me again,’ and, “I am going to the Father’?  18. What is this ‘short time’? We don’t know what he means.”

   19. Yahshua knew that they wanted to question him, so he said, You are asking one another what I meant by saying, ‘In a short time you will no longer see me, and then a short time later you will see me again.’  20. In all truth I tell you, you will be weeping and wailing while the world will rejoice; you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn to joy. 

   21. A woman in childbirth suffers, because her time has come; but when she has given birth to the child she forgets the suffering in her joy that a human being has been born into the world.  22. So it is with you: you are sad now, but I shall see you again, and your hearts will be full of joy, and that joy no one shall take from you.

   23. When that day comes, you will not ask me any questions.  In all truth I tell you, anything you ask from the Father he will grant in my name.  24. Until now you have not asked anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and so your joy will be complete.  25. I have been telling you these things in veiled language. 

   The hour is coming when I shall no longer speak to you in veiled language but tell you about the Father in plain words.  26. When that day comes you will ask in my name; and I do not say that I shall pray to the Father for you, 27. because the Father himself loves you for loving me, and believing that I came from [Him].  28. I came from the Father and have come into the world and now I am leaving the world to go to the Father.

   29. His disciples said, “Now you are speaking plainly and not using veiled language. 30. Now we see that you know everything and need not wait for questions to be put into words; because of this we believe that you came from Elohim.”  31. Yahshua answered them: Do you believe at last?  32. Listen; the time will come, indeed it has come already, when you are going to be scattered, each going his own way and leaving me alone.  And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.  33. I have told you all this so that you may find peace in me.  In the world you will have hardship, but be courageous: I have conquered the world.

UMH Hymn 596 “Blessed Yahshua, at thy Word”

 

The prayer of Yahshua

   John 17:1. After saying this, Yahshua raised his eyes to heaven and said: Father, the hour has come: glorify your Son so that your Son may glorify you;  2. so that, just as you have given him power over all humanity, he may give eternal life to all those you have entrusted to him.  3. And eternal life is this: to know you, the only true Eloah, and Yahshua the Anointed One whom you have sent.  4. I have glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do.  5. Now, Father, glorify me with that glory I had with you before ever the world existed.

   6. I have revealed your name to those whom you took from the world to give me.  They were yours and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.  7. Now at last they have recognized that all you have given me comes from you  8. for I have given them the teaching you gave to me, and they have indeed accepted it and know for certain that I came from you, and have believed that it was you who sent me.  9. It is for them that I pray.  I am not praying for the world but for those you have given me, because they belong to you.

   10. All I have is yours and all you have is mine, and in them I am glorified.  11. I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you.  Holy Father, keep those you have given me true to your name, so that they may be one like us.  12. While I was with them, I kept those you had given me true to your name.  I have watched over them and not one is lost except one who was destined to be lost, and this was to fulfill the scriptures.

   13. But now I am coming to you and I say these things in the world to share my joy with them to the full.  14. I passed your word on to them, and the world hated them, because they belong to the world no more than I belong to the world.  15. I am not asking you to remove them from the world, but to protect them from the Evil One.  16. They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world.  17. Consecrate them in the truth; your word is truth.

   18. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world, 19. and for their sake I consecrate myself so that they too may be consecrated in truth.  20. I pray not only for these but also for those who through their teaching will come to believe in me.  21. May they all be one, just as, Father, you are in me and I am in you, so that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe it was you who sent me.

   22. I have given them the glory you gave to me, that they may be one as we are one.  23. With me in them and you in me, may they be so perfected in unity that the world will recognize that it was you who sent me and that you have loved them as you have loved me.

   24. Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, so that they may always see my glory which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.  25. Father, Upright One, the world has not known you, but I have known you, and these have known that you have sent me.  26. I have made your name known to them and will continue to make it known, so that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and so that I may be in them.

UMH Hymn 314  “In the Garden”

 

The arrest of Yahshua

   John 18:1. After he had said all this, Yahshua left with his disciples and crossed the Kidron valley where there was a garden into which he went with his disciples.  2. Judas the traitor knew the place also, since Yahshua had often met his disciples there, 3. so Judas brought the cohort to this place together with guards sent by the chief priests and the Pharisees, all with lanterns and torches and weapons.

   4. Knowing everything that was to happen to him, Yahshua came forward and said, “Who are you looking for?”  5. They answered, “Yahshua the Nazoraion[1].” He said, “I AM[2].” Now Judas the traitor was standing among them.  6. When Yahshua said to them, “I AM,” they moved back and fell on the ground.  7. He asked them a second time, “Who are you looking for?” They said, “Yahshua the Nazoraion.” 8. Yahshua replied, “I have told you that I AM.  If then you look for me[3], let these others go.” 9. This was to fulfill the words he had spoken, “Not one of those you gave me have I lost.”

   10. Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s slave[4], cutting off his right ear. The slave’s name was Malchus. 11. Yahshua said to Peter, “Put your sword back in its scabbard; am I not to drink the cup that the Father has given me?”

 

Yahshua before Annas and Caiaphas - Peter disowns him

   12. The cohort and its tribune and the Jewish guards seized Yahshua and bound him. 13. They took him first to Annas, because Annas was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year. 14. It was Caiaphas who had counseled the Jews, “It is better for one man to die for the people.”

   15. Simon Peter, with another disciple, followed Yahshua. This disciple, who was known to the high priest, went with Yahshua into the high priest’s palace, 16. but Peter stayed outside the door. So the other disciple, the one known to the high priest, went out, spoke to the doorkeeper and brought Peter in.  17. The girl on duty at the door said to Peter, “Aren’t you another of that man’s disciples?” He answered, “I am not.”  18. Now it was cold, and the servants and guards had lit a charcoal fire and were standing there warming themselves; so Peter stood there too, warming himself with the others.

   19. The high priest questioned Yahshua about his disciples and his teaching. 20. Yahshua answered, “I have spoken openly for all the world to hear; I have always taught in the synagogue and in the Temple where all the Jews meet together; I have said nothing in secret. 21. Why ask me? Ask my hearers what I taught; they know what I said.” 22. At these words, one of the guards standing by gave Yahshua a slap in the face, saying, “Is that the way you answer the high priest?” 23. Yahshua replied, “If there is some offence in what I said, point it out; but if not, why do you strike me?” 24. Then Annas sent him, bound, to Caiaphas the high priest. 

   25. As Simon Peter stood there warming himself, someone said to him, “Aren’t you another of his disciples?” He denied it saying, “I am not.”  26. One of the high priest’s slaves, a relation of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, said, “Didn’t I see you in the garden with him?” 27. Again Peter denied it; and at once a cock crowed.

 

Yahshua before Pilate

   28. They then led Yahshua from the house of Caiaphas to the Praetorium. It was now morning. They did not go into the Praetorium themselves to avoid becoming defiled and unable to eat the Passover.  29. So Pilate came outside to them and said, “What charge do you bring against this man?” They replied, 30. “If he were not a criminal, we should not have handed him over to you.”  31. Pilate said, “Take him yourselves, and try him by your own Law.” The Jews answered, “We are not allowed to put anyone to death.” 32. This was to fulfill the words Yahshua had spoken indicating the way he was going to die.

   33. So Pilate went back into the Praetorium and called Yahshua to him and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”  34. Yahshua replied, “Do you ask this of your own accord, or have others said it to you about me?”  35. Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew?  It is your own people and the chief priests who have handed you over to me: what have you done?”  36. Yahshua replied, “Mine is not a kingdom of this world; if my kingdom were of this world, my men would have fought to prevent my being surrendered to the Jews. As it is, my kingdom does not belong here.”

   37. Pilate said, “So, then you are a king?” Yahshua answered, “It is you who say that I am a king. I was born for this, I came into the world for this, to bear witness to the truth; and all who are on the side of truth listen to my voice.” 38. “Truth?” said Pilate. “What is that?” And so saying he went out again to the Jews and said, “I find no case against him.  39. But according to a custom of yours I should release one prisoner at the Passover; would you like me, then, to release for you the king of the Jews?”  40. At this they shouted, “Not this man,” they said, “but Barabbas.” Barabbas was a looter[5].

Hymn “Lead Me to Calvary”  vss. 1, 4. 

1. King of my life, I crown Thee now, Thine shall the glory be;
Lest I forget Thy thorn crowned brow, Lead me to Calvary.
Refrain: Lest I forget Gethsemane, Lest I forget Thine agony;
Lest I forget Thy love for me, Lead me to Calvary.

 4. May I be willing, YAH, to bear Daily my cross for Thee;
Even Thy cup of grief to share, Thou hast borne all for me.

   John 19:1. Pilate then had Yahshua taken away and whipped; 2. and after this, the soldiers twisted some thorns into a crown and put it on his head and dressed him in a purple robe. 3. They kept coming up to him and saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” and slapping him in the face. 4. Pilate came outside again and said to them, “Look, I am going to bring him out to you to let you see that I find no case against him.” 5. Yahshua then came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said, “Here is the man.”

   6. When they saw him, the chief priests and the guards shouted, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”  Pilate said, “Take him yourselves and crucify him: I find no case against him.”   7. The Jews replied, “We have a Law, and according to that Law he ought to be put to death, because he has claimed to be Son of Eloah.”

   8. When Pilate heard them say this, his fears increased. 9. Re-entering the Praetorium, he said to Yahshua, “Where do you come from?” But Yahshua made no answer. 10. Pilate then said to him, “Are you refusing to speak to me? Surely you know I have power to release you and I have power to crucify you?”  11. Yahshua replied, “You would have no power over me at all if it had not been given you from above; that is why the man who handed me over to you has the greater guilt.”

 

Yahshua is condemned to death

   12. From that moment Pilate was anxious to set him free, but the Jews shouted, “If you set him free you are no friend of Caesar’s; anyone who makes himself king is defying Caesar.”  13. Hearing these words, Pilate had Yahshua brought out, and seated him on the chair of judgment at a place called the Pavement (in Hebrew Gabbatha).  14. It was the Day of Preparation, about the sixth hour. “Here is your king,” said Pilate to the Jews.  15. But they shouted, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him.” Pilate said, “Shall I crucify your king?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king except Caesar.”  16. So at that Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.

 

The crucifixion

   17. They then took charge of Yahshua, and carrying his own stake[6] he went out to the Place of the Skull (or, as it is called in Hebrew, Golgotha,) 18. where they crucified him with two others, one on either side, Yahshua being in the middle.  19. Pilate wrote out a notice and had it fixed to the stake; it ran: “Yahshua the Nazarene, King of the Jews.”  20. This notice was read by many of the Jews, because the place where Yahshua was crucified was near the city, and the writing was in Hebrew, Latin and Greek.  21. So the Jewish chief priests said to Pilate, “You should not write ‘King of the Jews’, but that the man said, ‘I am King of the Jews’.”  22. Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”

 

Yahshua’ garments divided

   23. When the soldiers had finished crucifying Yahshua they took his clothing and divided it into four shares, one for each soldier. His undergarment was seamless, woven in one piece from neck to hem; 24. so they said to one another, “Instead of tearing it, let’s throw dice to decide who is to have it.” In this way the words of scripture were fulfilled: They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothes. That is what the soldiers did.

 

Yahshua and his mother

   25. Near the torture stake of Yahshua stood his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala.  26. Seeing his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing near her, Yahshua said to his mother, “Woman, this is your son.”  27. Then to the disciple he said, “This is your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.

 

The death of Yahshua

   28. After this, Yahshua knew that everything had now been completed and, so that the scripture should be completely fulfilled, he said: I am thirsty.  29. A jar full of sour wine stood there; so, putting a sponge soaked in the wine on a hyssop stick, they held it up to his mouth.  30. After Yahshua had taken the wine he said, “It is fulfilled”; and bowing his head he gave up his spirit. 

UMH Hymn 296  “Sing, My Tongue, the Glorious Battle”

 

{The rest is optional reading:} The pierced Messiah

   31. It was the Day of Preparation, and to avoid the bodies’ remaining on the cross during the Sabbath, since that Sabbath was a day of special solemnity, the Jews asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken away.  32. Consequently the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with him and then of the other. 33. When they came to Yahshua, they saw he was already dead, and so instead of breaking his legs 34. one of the soldiers pierced his side with a lance; and immediately there came out blood and water.  35. This is the evidence of one who saw it, true evidence, and he knows that what he says is true, and he gives it so that you may believe as well.  36. Because all this happened to fulfill the words of scripture: Not one bone of his will be broken; 37. and again, in another place scripture says: They will look to the one whom they have pierced.

 

The burial

   38. After this, Joseph of Arimathaea, who was a disciple of Yahshua, though a secret one because he was afraid of the Jews, asked Pilate to let him remove the body of Yahshua. Pilate gave permission, so they came and took it away.  39. Nicodemus came as well, the same one who had first come to Yahshua at nighttime, and he brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about a hundred pounds.  40. They took the body of Yahshua and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, following the Jewish burial custom.

   41. At the place where he had been crucified there was a garden, and in this garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been buried. 42. Since it was the Jewish Day of Preparation and the tomb was nearby, they laid Yahshua there.

 

Litany of Prayer

One: Father, strong and merciful, by the suffering and death of your Son, free us from slavery to sin and death and protect us in all our weakness; through Yahshua the Anointed One our Savior. Amein.

       - Adapted from Don E. Saliers, U.S.A., 20™ Cent.

 

Two: Holy and compassionate Father, your dear Son went not up to joy before he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified.  Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it the way of life and peace; through Yahshua the Anointed One your Son, our Savior. Amein.

- Adapted from The Book Of Common Prayer, U.S.A., 20^th Cent.

 

Three: Most merciful Yahweh, your blessed Son, our Savior, was betrayed, whipped, and his face spat upon.  Grant us grace to endure the sufferings of the present time, to overcome all that seeks to overwhelm us, confident of the glory that shall yet be revealed; through Yahshua Messiah our Redeemer.  Amein.

- Adapted from The Book Of Common Prayer, U.S.A., 20^th Cent.

 

Four: Our Father, by the example of your Son, our Savior Yahshua the Anointed One, you taught us the greatness of true humility, and call us to watch with him in his passion.  Give us grace to serve one another in all lowliness, and to enter into the fellowship of his suffering; in his name and for his sake.  Amein.

- W. E. Orchard, England, 20^th Cent.

 

Five: Lamb of Yahweh, what a dark and empty day this would be for me if you had not willingly died on the cross! Your suffering and your death should have been mine. Impress upon me the joy that even your Passion should bring into my life. For by your death you made it possible for me to experience a Father’s love and forgiveness every day. Help me never to live as though your death was for nothing. Rather help me live as one who has died to sin and been made alive for righteousness. Hear me for the sake of your innocent suffering and death. Amein.

- Adapted from Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod

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