|
Sunday After the Exaltation of
the Cross
Although
today is technically the Sunday AFTER the Feast of the Cross, we are celebrating the Feast today. Therefore, the readings have been adjusted accordingly.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The following readings below are for Sunday, September
16, 2018:
Today's Epistle reading [1 Corinthians 1.18-24]:
For the
word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it
is written,
"I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I will thwart."
Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this
age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know
God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs
and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling-block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who
are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Gospel reading for today
[John 19.6-11, 13-20,
25-28, 30-35]:
When
the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, "Crucify him, crucify him!" Pilate said to them,
"Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no crime in him." The Jews answered him, "We have a
law, and by that law he ought to die, because he has made himself the Son of God." When Pilate heard these words,
he was the more afraid; he entered the praetorium again and said to Jesus, "Where are you from?" But Jesus
gave no answer. Pilate therefore said to him, "You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have power
to release you, and power to crucify you?" Jesus answered him, "You would have no power over me unless it
had been given you from above; therefore he who delievered me to you has the greater sin."
When
Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called the Pavement, and in Hebrew,
Gabbatha. Now it was the day of Preparation for the Passover; it was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews,
"Here is your King!" They cried out, "Away with him, away with him, crucify him!" Pilate said
to them, "Shall I crucify your King?" The chief priests answered, "We have no king but Caesar. Then he
handed him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the pace called
the place of a skull, which is called in Hebrew Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on
either side, and Jesus between them. Pilate also wrote a title and put it on the cross; it read, "Jesus of Nazareth,
the King of the Jews." Many of the Jews read this title, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city;
and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and In Greek.
So the soldiers did this;
but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.
When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, "Woman, behold
your son!" Then he said to the disciple, "Behold your mother!" And from that hour the disciple took her
to his own home. After this Jesus, know ing that all was now finished, said (to fulfil the scripture), "I thirst."
When Jesus had received the vinegar, he said, "It is finished": and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
Since it was the day of Preparation, in order to prevent the bodies from remaining on the cross on the sabbath (for
that sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. So
the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified lwith him; but when they came to
Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a
spear, and at once there came out blood and water. He who saw it has borne witness -- his testimony is true, and he
knows that he tells the truth -- that you also may believe.
|
