Lessons                                                                       Bread of Life                                                            23 March 2024

Zechariah 9:9–12

₉Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!

      Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!

behold, your king is coming to you;

      righteous and having salvation is he,

humble and mounted on a donkey,

      on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

₁₀I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim

      and the war horse from Jerusalem;

and the battle bow shall be cut off,

      and he shall speak peace to the nations;

his rule shall be from sea to sea,

      and from the River to the ends of the earth.

₁₁As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you,

      I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.

₁₂Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope;

      today I declare that I will restore to you double.

Psalm 118:19–29

₁₉Open to me the gates of | righteousness,*

      that I may enter through them

      and give thanks | to the Lord.

₂₀This is the gate | of the Lord;*

      the righteous shall enter | through it.

₂₁I thank you that you have | answered me*

      and have become my sal- | vation.

₂₂The stone that the builders re- | jected*

      has become the | cornerstone.

₂₃This is the Lord's | doing;*

      it is marvelous | in our eyes.

₂₄This is the day that the |Lord has made;*

      let us rejoice and be | glad in it.

₂₅Save us, we pray, | O Lord!*

      O Lord, we pray, give | us success!

₂₆Blessèd is he who comes in the name | of the Lord!*

      We bless you from the house | of the Lord.

₂₇The Lord is God,

      and he has made his light to shine up- | on us.*

Bind the festal sacrifice with cords,

      up to the horns of the | altar!

₂₈You are my God, and I will give | thanks to you;*

      you are my God; I will ex- | tol you.

₂₉Oh give thanks to the Lord, for | he is good;*

      for his steadfast love endures for- | ever!

Philippians 2:5–11

      ₅Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, ₆who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ₇but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ₈And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. ₉Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, ₁₀so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ₁₁and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Mark 15:1–47

      ₁And as soon as it was morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole Council. And they bound Jesus and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate. ₂And Pilate asked him, "Are you the King of the Jews?" And he answered him, "You have said so." ₃And the chief priests accused him of many things. ₄And Pilate again asked him, "Have you no answer to make? See how many charges they bring against you." ₅But Jesus made no further answer, so that Pilate was amazed.

      ₆Now at the feast he used to release for them one prisoner for whom they asked. ₇And among the rebels in prison, who had committed murder in the insurrection, there was a man called Barabbas. ₈And the crowd came up and began to ask Pilate to do as he usually did for them. ₉And he answered them, saying, "Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?" ₁₀For he perceived that it was out of envy that the chief priests had delivered him up. ₁₁But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release for them Barabbas instead. ₁₂And Pilate again said to them, "Then what shall I do with the man you call the King of the Jews?" ₁₃And they cried out again, "Crucify him." ₁₄And Pilate said to them, "Why, what evil has he done?" But they shouted all the more, "Crucify him." ₁₅So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.

      ₁₆And the soldiers led him away inside the palace (that is, the governor's headquarters), and they called together the whole battalion. ₁₇And they clothed him in a purple cloak, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him. ₁₈And they began to salute him, "Hail, King of the Jews!" ₁₉And they were striking his head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling down in homage to him. ₂₀And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him. And they led him out to crucify him.

      ₂₁And they compelled a passerby, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross. ₂₂And they brought him to the place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull). ₂₃And they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. ₂₄And they crucified him and divided his garments among them, casting lots for them, to decide what each should take. ₂₅And it was the third hour when they crucified him. ₂₆And the inscription of the charge against him read, "The King of the Jews." ₂₇And with him they crucified two robbers, one on his right and one on his left. ₂₉And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, "Aha! You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, ₃₀save yourself, and come down from the cross!" ₃₁So also the chief priests with the scribes mocked him to one another, saying, "He saved others; he cannot save himself. ₃₂Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe." Those who were crucified with him also reviled him.

      ₃₃And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. ₃₄And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" ₃₅And some of the bystanders hearing it said, "Behold, he is calling Elijah." ₃₆And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, "Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down." ₃₇And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. ₃₈And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. ₃₉And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, "Truly this man was the Son of God!"

      ₄₀There were also women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. ₄₁When he was in Galilee, they followed him and ministered to him, and there were also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem.

      ₄₂And when evening had come, since it was the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath, ₄₃Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the Council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. ₄₄Pilate was surprised to hear that he should have already died. And summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he was already dead. ₄₅And when he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the corpse to Joseph. ₄₆And Joseph bought a linen shroud, and taking him down, wrapped him in the linen shroud and laid him in a tomb that had been cut out of the rock. And he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. ₄₇Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid.