SCRIPTURE MEDITATION: " IS IT NOTHING.....?"

This meditation was used at the United Service on Good Friday

Then the governor's soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers round him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him. and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand and knelt in front of him and mocked him. "Hail, king of the Jews'" they said. They spat on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.

Is it nothing to you that one day Jesus came
All our sorrow and suffering to share?
He came as the light of new hope for a world
In the day of its darkest despair.

There is a green hill far away,
Without a city wall,
Where the dear Lord was crucified
Who died to save us all.

Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals - one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they dp not know what they are doing."

Is it nothing to you that one day Jesus died,
That men mocked him and, heedless, passed by?
No sorrow was e'er like the sorrow he bore
When they scorned him and left him to die.

He died that we might be forgiven,
He died to make us good,
That we might go at last to Heaven,
Saved by his precious blood.

Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, "Do not write The King of the Jews', but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews." Pilate answered, "What I have written, I have written." When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. "Let's not tear it," they said to one another. "Let's decide by lot who will get it." This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled which said, "They divided my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing." So this is what the soldiers did.

On Calvary's tree the King of Glory languished,
Held not by nails but by undying love,
Sin's debt to pay, the sting of death remove,
Boundless cleansing to provide,
Mercy's gate open wide.

His purple robe is parted among the soldiers,
That sceptre-reed discarded where it fell;
Yet, meekly borne, that crown of cruel thorn
Still attests his royal might,
Fears to quell, wrongs to right

One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: "Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us!" But the other criminal rebuked him. "Don't you fear God," he said, "since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong." Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."

There was no other good enough
To pay the price of sin;
He only could unlock the gate
Of Heaven, and let us in.

At the sixth hour darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "E/o/, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" - which means, "My God. my God, why have you forsaken me?" When some of those standing near heard this, they said, "Listen, he's calling Elijah." One man ran, filled a sponge with wine vinegar, put it on a stick and offered it to Jesus to drink. "Now leave him alone. Let's see if Elijah comes to take him down," he said.

Darkness descends, the cross in mystery veiling,
Deep thunders roll and lightnings rend the skies
As Jesus dies, a willing sacrifice;
God's own word by blood is sealed:
By his stripes we are healed.

And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus called out with a loud voice,
"Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." When he had said this, he breathed his last. And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, heard his cry and saw how he died, he said, "Surely this man was the Son of God!"

From that sacred hill
Hope is gleaming still;
Thy shame and grief he bore;
Go in peace, sin no more.
Is it nothing to you that his cross speaks our shame?
Is it nothing to you, for whose cleansing he came,
That our guilt made his Calvary and pierced his hands through?
Is it nothing to you?
Is it nothing,
nothing to you?