Becoming a disciple, just like becoming a fully mature being, takes time, takes the involvement of committed people, and takes a process of growth and development that is intentional and well worked out. The problem that we are dealing with is not only the problem of individual Christians who don’t grow but the problem of local churches that don’t have a process for nurturing and growing new Christians into mature disciples.

I never got the chance to meet Dr. Robert Webber but he had a profound impact on my life and my ministry. His writing took my theological box where I stored my ministry paradigms, ideas, things I thought I knew, my church upbringing, and what I thought was my safe, little god and dumped it out on the floor for me to examine. When all was said and done I decided to do away with a box altogether and just make Christ my pursuit and my all consuming passion. When I first read the words quoted above I immediately knew that I had found my calling. I wasn’t just a minister. I am a disciple who makes disciples. As simple and profound and challenging as that. I promptly devoured everything by him I could get my hands on. I have even spent the year walking with him through the Christian calendar, something I would have never been able to experience without his prodding and help, by using his book Ancient-Future Time. I will be forever grateful.

Dr. Webber’s battle with cancer ended on Friday.

I also echo the prayer that was posted on the press release:

“Depart, O Christian soul, out of this world; in the name of God the Father Almighty who created you; in the name of Jesus Christ who redeemed you; in the name of the Holy Spirit who sanctifies you. May your rest be this day in peace, and your dwelling place in the Paradise of God. Into your hands, O merciful Savior, we commend your servant Bob. Acknowledge, we humbly beseech you, a sheep of your own fold, a lamb of your own flock, a sinner of your own redeeming. Receive him into the arms of your mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the glorious company of the saints in light. Amen.”

Thank you Dr. Webber for your work and your life. I am indebted to you for insight and your relentless pursuit of Christ Jesus, our Lord. He is the Victor. May you rest in His arms tonight.

link

Tonight we headed over to the Loft Gallery at the Nest near SMU for an art exhibt to help benefit the Harding University in Florence program. The villa is need of repair and updating to comply with some new EU regulations so the program was auctioning off some beautiful pieces by Robbie Shackelford, the director of the HUF program.

This piece is titled Villa From Val Di Botte and was an absolute stunner hanging in the gallery. Alas, we could only afford the print but if I could I would have paid double the asking price! The good news is that the exhibt was able to raise $15,000 for the Villa tonight which is a great start.

It was great seeing the Shackelford’s again and we had a wonderful time at the exhibt. Dr. Hopper set the mood for the evening by playing the piano and engaging paintings and beautiful music are always a welcome pair for me. All of Robbie’s pieces will be on display until September so if you live in the DFW area it will be well worth your time to swing by the gallery. The whole night I kept saying,

“What a beautiful exhibt!”

Google Maps Directions to the Villa in Florence
HUF Aution (now closed)
The Nest

I do not watch American Idol. Even the prospect of Bono appearing on last night’s episode wasn’t enough to get me excited about watching karaoke in primetime. I was glad to hear that a giant show like Idol was devoting so much talent and time to helping charities and children in Africa and I give them huge props for doing so. I just wasn’t rushing home to catch the show. However, had I known that The King was going to appear live and sing my favorite song from the ‘68 Comeback Special I would have skipped church!!! (jk, we would have watched it in class)

Even Celine Dion couldn’t ruin the cool factor one bit. Totally awesome!!!

Check out the video:

You can also download the video from iTunes and purchase some songs from last night including Carrie Undewood’s beautiful rendition of the Pretender’s I’ll Stand By You. Check ‘em out and download them for a good cause.

Just a few thoughts for this morning:

Dating: Here is some free, unsolicited marital advice. One of my favorite things to do is to go out on dates with my wife. They never get old. Any couple can stay at home and watch a movie but there is no substitute for picking your spouse up at home, driving to dinner, and then catching a flick at the theatre… on a Tuesday. Don’t even wait for the weekend. These dates keep our love life fresh and exciting. It gives us time to sit together and talk about the day instead of frantically throwing a dinner together after a long day at work. Let someone else do the dishes while you connect. So where are yu and your spouse going to go tonight?

Busy and a Stiff Necked Guy: I hesitate to complain about how busy I’ve been because the summer is right around the corner. That is when I fear my reference point for being busy will be blown out of the water in a matter of weeks. However, I have been extremely tired and worn out. Today is the first day in two weeks that my right shoulder feels ok. A combination of sleeping wonky, working a tiller, sleeping on the ground for the Global Night Commute, and general use has left my right side stiff and unmanageable. Driving has been difficult because I have struggled to turn my head to the right or left in order to check my blind-spots. The pain has been frustrating. However today is good day.

Reading: When I get busy I miss out on my reading. I have updated the On My Desk page and On My iPod page to better reflect what I’m reading and listening to right now. Yancy’s Prayer and Wright’s Justice of God have been on the list since Jan. 1. I want to just finish them but I want to be very Berean about reading them. My goal will be to finish those two book by Dec. 31!

Long Distance Phone Call: While I was writing this post I got a very special international phone call from my friend in London, England. He and his family will be coming back to the states very soon. Austin City Limits here we come!!!

Beethoven’s 9th: Fantastic! I get teary and overjoyed every time I listen to it.

Creativity Should Never Go to Waste: before being called into ministry I had a great desire to become an animator. I loved to draw and I loved being creative in everything that I did. Thankfully I can still use my artistic eye and my flair for the creative in youth ministry. I spent the better part of yesterday working in Photoshop creating posters for different events and had a great time. Most of what I’ve learned in Photoshop has been trial and error. I’m not great at it but it feeds by need to create. Below is a poster for our Spider-man movie event. Our ministry name is Element523 so I tried to incorperate the logo and our name. Again, nothing ground breaking but I had fun. What do you think?

Hope you all have a great day. It is beautiful here in the DFW area. Spring time rocks!

Peace.

Psalm 130:2-7
Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy. If you, LORD, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve you. I wait for the LORD, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope. I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning. Israel, put your hope in the LORD, for with the LORD is unfailing love and with him is full redemption.

As I read this passage this morning I was struck by a phrase I had never seen before.

“But with you there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve you.”

It is only by God’s forgiveness that we can serve him fully. What a great reminder of the power of forgiveness.

Last night, we had the pitter-patter of little feet in the Felker household. Some friends of ours had a business meeting nearby so that asked if we could watch their son who is about 8 months old. “No problem,” I said, “bring him over!” So from about seven until midnight we tasted parenthood.

When they dropped him off they gave us a few tips to calm him if he began crying. “Oh, he loves The Simpsons,” his mom said. Bingo!!! I knew right there that it was going to be a good night!

The evening went by very smoothly- no crying, lots of giggles, and most importantly, I didn’t have to change a dirty diaper.

I did struggle with one thing though. I had a hard time putting his PJs on.

I laid him on the bed and began unbuttoning his onesie. No problem. Then he began to laugh and kick.

As I was pulling the onesie over his head it got stuck. I began to panic because I was sure that he was about to freak out. As gently and as quickly as I could I pulled it over his head. When it came over his face he began to just laugh and kick and laugh some more. I think he thought we were playing peek-a-boo. Whew!

The next challenge came seconds later when I tried to put on hs pajama pants. It sort of went like this:

One foot on.
Laugh, kick.
Pants are now inside out.
Fix pants.
Two feet on.
Laugh, kick.
Pants are inside out again.

It went on like that for about five minutes.

I have a hard enough time dressing myself in the mornings much less a laughing, sqirming little boy. A preview of things to come some day I guess.

Not anytime soon but some day. Maybe. Maybe.

John Piper has re-posted 21 Ways to Love and Comfort The Hurting in light of the shootings at VA Tech.

All 21 of these suggestions are great but you cannot go through them one after the other immediately following incidents like what happened yeserday. We forget that grief is a process and we would do well to live in numbers 1-4 for a good while before moving on to offering advice. the truth of “God’s sovereignty over all things” must not be taken lightly but in the face of a massive tragedy quickly offering it to those who are mourning takes the mystery of God and turns it into a weak platitude. That too is a great tragedy.

1. Pray. Ask God for his help for you and for those you want to minister to. Ask him for wisdom and compassion and strength and a word fitly chosen. Ask that those who are suffering would look to God as their help and hope and healing and strength. Ask that he would make your mouth a fountain of life.

2. Feel and express empathy with those most hurt by this great evil and loss; weep with those who weep.

3. Feel and express compassion because of the tragic circumstances of so many loved ones and friends who have lost more than they could ever estimate.

4. Take time and touch, if you can, and give tender care to the wounded in body and soul.

5. Hold out the promise that God will sustain and help those who cast themselves on him for mercy and trust in his grace. He will strengthen you for the impossible days ahead in spite of all darkness.

6. Affirm that Jesus Christ tasted hostility from men and knew what it was to be unjustly tortured and abandoned, and to endure overwhelming loss, and then be killed, so that he is now a sympathetic mediator for us with God.

7. Declare that this murder was a great evil, and that God’s wrath is greatly kindled by the wanton destruction of human life created in his image.

8. Acknowledge that God has permitted a great outbreak of sin against his revealed will, and that we do not know all the reasons why he would permit such a thing now, when it was in his power to stop it.

9. Express the truth that Satan is a massive reality in the universe that conspires with our own sin and flesh and the world to hurt people and to move people to hurt others, but stress that Satan is within and under the control of God.

10. Express that these terrorists rebelled against the revealed will of God and did not love God or trust him or find in God their refuge and strength and treasure, but scorned his ways and his Person.

11. Since rebellion against God was at the root of this act of murder, let us all fear such rebellion in our own hearts, and turn from it, and embrace the grace of God in Christ, and renounce the very impulses that caused this tragedy.

12. Point the living to the momentous issues of sin and repentance in our own hearts and the urgent need to get right with God through his merciful provision of forgiveness in Christ, so that a worse fate than death will not overtake us.

13. Remember that even those who trust in Christ may be cut down but that does not mean they have been abandoned by God or not loved by God even in those agonizing hours of suffering. God’s love conquers even through calamity.

14. Mingle heart-wrenching weeping with unbreakable confidence in the goodness and sovereignty of God who rules over and through the sin and the plans of rebellious people.

15. Trust God for his ability to do the humanly impossible, and bring you through this nightmare and, in some inscrutable way, bring good out of it.

16. Explain, when the time is right, and they have the wherewithal to think clearly that one of the mysteries of God’s greatness is that he ordains that some things come to pass which he forbids and disapproves of.

17. Express your personal cherishing of the sovereignty of God as the ground of all your hope as you face the human impossibilities of life. The very fulfillment of the New Covenant promises of our salvation and preservation hang on God’s sovereignty over rebellious human wills.

18. Count God your only lasting treasure, because he is the only sure and stable thing in the universe.

19. Remind everyone that to live is Christ and to die is gain.

20. Pray that God would incline their hearts to his word, open their eyes to his wonders, unite their hearts to fear him, and satisfy them with his love.

21. At the right time sound the trumpet that all this good news is meant by God to free us for radical, sacrificial service for the salvation of men and the glory of Christ. Help them see that one message of all this misery is to show us that life is short and fragile and followed by eternity, and small, man-centered ambitions are tragic.

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I spent most the morning and this afternoon at one of the local high schools talking about the Global Night Commute happening in Arlington next Friday.

I am so excited about this event and as the date draws closer more and more people are beginning to show interest in joining us.

If you have not seen the documentary Invisible Children please do so now but be advised: You will be changed forever!!!

In 2003, three college students traveled to Africa with a video camera and a desire to see and to capture on film what was happening in Africa. The story that they uncovered is one of an abhorant warlord who abducts children to fight in his illeagal war. Since 1987, thousands upon thousands of children have been abducted, tortured, and forced to kill in the Lord’s Resistence Army led by Joeseph Kony. The atrocities that these children are forces to endure are too numerous to count. It is truly heartwrenching.

Invisible Children shows how children walk miles every night so that they can sleep in large, public places where the will be safe from Kony and his child soldiers. Every night they walk into the cities and then every morning they walk back to their homes.

This apparently has been happening for 20 years. It is past time for it to end.

Last year’s Global Night Commute saw 80,000 students from all around the country march into cities to sleep in parks and on the steps of government buildings to hightlight the night commuter problem in N. Uganda.

This year it is our turn.

I am so proud of my students who saw the film and asked, “What can we do to help?” they have taken this issue to heart and made it their own.Way to go!!!

If you live in the DFW area and want to join us next Friday drop me a line.

Arlington Night Commute Event

Now that CBS has fired Don Imus for his indefensible comments will they now take artists like Ludacris, Three6Mafia, Lil’ Wayne and other musicians that consistently degrade and tear down women in their music and videos off of Mtv? Will they now quit airing crap programs like “Flavor of Love” and “I Love New York” and the forthcoming “Flavor of Love Girls: Charm School” where comments and language similar in nature to Imus’ are thrown around with nary a thought on VH1? Or will they now take shows like South Park off the air because Stan’s dad used the N word repeatedly and without cause in this season’s opening episode?

I’m not saying that they should take these things off the air (Well, You can take the Flavor of Love stuff off though) I’m just calling for a little consistency.

Viacom has had a habit of reacting with a knee jerk instead of an honest assessment of what it is actually airing.

After the Janet Jackson/Superbowl incident Mtv announced that it wouldn’t air any music video with sexual content until after 9pm. That lasted about a week.

Now, instead of working out this debate in front of a national audience Viacom has chosen to shoot its wounded so that we can all go about our business and forget this incident ever happened.

No dialogue.
No more chances.
No looking at any other aspects of our society that need changing.

Thanks Viacom. Imus was such a culturally relevant, hip media icon. His influence reached every youngster in the country. Thank you for taking his damaging voice off the air. We can sleep well tonight knowing that our kids won’t be effected by the type of language he used any more.

Seriously, this was the perfect opportunity for us to look at how our language has changed rapidly in the last 5 years. Words like pimp have become a positive description and songs about them have won Oscars. Junior high students call each other “hoes” as terms of endearment. Brothers and sisters this should not be.

This isn’t happening because of Imus and unfortunately this issue has become about one man instead of a society that should stand up and take blame for allowing words like these to become all too common place. Shame on us all for allowing it to get this far.

UPDATE: I am calling right here for Universal (parent company on MSNBC) to cancel or re-name the latest Halle Berry movie titled Nappily Ever After. The movie is based on the book by Trisha R. Thomas. In fact, publicity for this movie began last week right around the same time the media storm around Imus started.

Universal, it is irresposible for you to continue making this film under this divisive title. Be consistent!!! That word to me has always been off-limits and ignorant.

Ultimately, Starbucks can’t flourish and win customers’ hearts without the passionate devotion of our employees. In business, that passion comes from ownership, trust, and loyalty. If you undermine any of those, employees will veiw their work as just another job. Their passion and devotion is our number-one competitive advantage. Lose it, and we’ve lost the game.

Today we continue thinking about the latest Starbucks corporate initiative focusing on the unique talents that each partner brings to the coffee-table and what that could do for your ministry.

The I Am Starbucks campaign is truly inspired. Giving your employees stock options can make them feel like they share in the ownership of the company but highlight who they are as individuals and celebrate their strengths and you’ve got wildfire of loyalty, passion, and excitement that has the potential to sweep the entire organization.

When I read the words I Am Starbucks I immediately began thinking about my ministry. One of my non-negotiables is that I want and desire that every student that comes in contact with our ministry to feel that they are an important part of what’s going on. The ministry rises or falls on who they are as individuals and what they bring to the collective.

To clarify, I’m not talking about an individual’s worth being tied to what they contribute.

No, I simply mean that who they are is the contribution- their presence, involvement, ideas, passions, gifts. Who they are at their core means a great deal to our ministry.

For many teens this idea could be revolutionary. Teens have been conditioned feel as though adults only care about what they can do. They have a hard time believing that they could loved because of who they are.

I hear things like:

“My coach only cares if we win state.”
“My parents expect me to be perfect.”
“Every teacher thinks that their class is the most important and deserves the most of my time.”

I understand that this feeling is somewhat oversimplified but perception is the truest reality. Students need to be told that they are loved because of who the are and that our love isn’t a condition of what they can or cannot do.

So, starting an I Am insert your ministry here campaign begins with loving your people as individuals. If you jump into highlighting talents in an open forum your effort will reek of trying to profit off of their efforts. Students can see right through that and if we’re honest with ourselves so can most adults.

Long before Starbucks began this new campaign they built trust and loyalty with their partners by creating health plans, 401k, and Bean Stock in essence telling their people that they care about them personally above and beyond the corporate bottom line. The result is that this ad campaign has an air of authenticity behind it. That’s something many ministries struggle with.

You want to reach people outside your church walls? Start loving the people that are there now.

You want to highlight people’s gifts and talents in front of the entire body? Start highlighting people’s gifts and talents quietly on your own.

You want people to feel like they are responsible for the direction and success of your ministry? Make people more important than the specific ministry.

Start doing these things and pretty soon your people will begin proudly saying,

I AM Insert Ministry Here & YOU CAN BE TOO.

Sometimes I like it when things don’t go according to plan.

I had wanted to get into the office a little earlier than usual this morning but as I was trying to leave the house I couldn’t find my keys. I looked in the places where I usually leave my keys but after a few minutes I knew exactly where they were.

In my wife’s purse. At her job. 40 minutes away.

After calling her to confirm that they were indeed inside her purse I knew that my plans for the morning would have to change. While I do have a spare car key I do not have a spare to the building or to my office. I could leave my house but I had no where to go. Thankfully, I do have a spare Starbucks card for this very occasion.

When I got to Starbucks I ordered a tall mocha and I also purchased a copy of Off the Clock: Vol 1.

Off the Clock is collection of new music from “up and coming Starbucks artists.” Translation: The music is from actual Starbucks partners. You could have been served a drink made by someone featured on this album! How cool is that?

According to the liner notes:

For years Starbucks Entertainment has been asked by just about everyone who works here how to get their music heard. So we decided in 2006 to see what the partners had to offer by launching our first-ever Partner Music Contest. (Partners) were invited to submit solo or band recordings of original songs.

We ended up receiving more than 800 submissions.

Yes, these artists work at Starbucks, and they are also amazing musicians with great songs that deserve to be heard. We back their music wholeheartedly. While we strive to support our partners, ultimately it is our goal here to introduce you to astonishing music from exceptional artists.

Starbucks has always been known for standing behind their employees. The company consistantly ranks at or near the top of the world’s most respected companies and that is due largerly to the way that it treats its employees.

I think that highlighting the talents of the baristas around the country is a win-win for everyone. In a country that is focused on some guy named Sanjya with zero talent this album showcases 15 very talented singer/song writers or bands that sling joe in the morning and rock out at night.

The stores are also putting the spotlight on some baristas who are artists allowing them to create artwork for ceramic mugs, journals, and prints that are sold in store as well.

All of this falls under a new campaign titled, “I Am Starbucks.”

So, I’ve got a few questions that I want to discuss the rest of the week.

1) What could this kind of campaign do in our churches? How can we highlight what our people do “off the clock” (Monday-Saturday)?

2) What would this look like?

I love this poster!

Reebok launched their new ad campain today inviting runners to Run Easy with some pretty provacative art work. Not all of them are this awesome real but they are all indicative of the entire campain.

Run Easy seems to be targeting the Nike+ crowd with it’s interactive/social networking site complete with sections to share your favorite runs and playlists with other runners within the community.

The site has been running a little slow today but it is worth you checking out. I promise it won’t make you puke.

All Debts Are Removed

“On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’” Then they remembered his words.”
-Luke 24:1-8

“Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. On reaching the place, he said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.”He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.

When he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. “Why are you sleeping?” he asked them. “Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.”

While he was still speaking a crowd came up, and the man who was called Judas, one of the Twelve, was leading them. He approached Jesus to kiss him, but Jesus asked him, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?”

When Jesus’ followers saw what was going to happen, they said, “Lord, should we strike with our swords?” And one of them struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his right ear.
But Jesus answered, “No more of this!” And he touched the man’s ear and healed him.

Then Jesus said to the chief priests, the officers of the temple guard, and the elders, who had come for him, “Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come with swords and clubs?
Every day I was with you in the temple courts, and you did not lay a hand on me. But this is your hour—when darkness reigns.”

Then seizing him, they led him away and took him into the house of the high priest. Peter followed at a distance. And when some there had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down with them. A servant girl saw him seated there in the firelight. She looked closely at him and said, “This man was with him.”
But he denied it. “Woman, I don’t know him,” he said.

A little later someone else saw him and said, “You also are one of them.”
“Man, I am not!” Peter replied.

About an hour later another asserted, “Certainly this fellow was with him, for he is a Galilean.”

Peter replied, “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times.”And he went outside and wept bitterly.

The men who were guarding Jesus began mocking and beating him. They blindfolded him and demanded, “Prophesy! Who hit you?” And they said many other insulting things to him.

At daybreak the council of the elders of the people, both the chief priests and the teachers of the law, met together, and Jesus was led before them. “If you are the Messiah,” they said, “tell us.”

Jesus answered, “If I tell you, you will not believe me,and if I asked you, you would not answer.But from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God.”
They all asked, “Are you then the Son of God?”

He replied, “You say that I am.”

Then they said, “Why do we need any more testimony? We have heard it from his own lips.”
Then the whole assembly rose and led him off to Pilate. And they began to accuse him, saying, “We have found this man subverting our nation. He opposes payment of taxes to Caesar and claims to be Messiah, a king.”

So Pilate asked Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?”

“You have said so,” Jesus replied.

Then Pilate announced to the chief priests and the crowd, “I find no basis for a charge against this man.”

But they insisted, “He stirs up the people all over Judea by his teaching. He started in Galilee and has come all the way here.”

On hearing this, Pilate asked if the man was a Galilean. When he learned that Jesus was under Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at that time.

When Herod saw Jesus, he was greatly pleased, because for a long time he had been wanting to see him. From what he had heard about him, he hoped to see him perform a sign of some sort. He plied him with many questions, but Jesus gave him no answer. The chief priests and the teachers of the law were standing there, vehemently accusing him. Then Herod and his soldiers ridiculed and mocked him. Dressing him in an elegant robe, they sent him back to Pilate. That day Herod and Pilate became friends—before this they had been enemies.

Pilate called together the chief priests, the rulers and the people, and said to them, “You brought me this man as one who was inciting the people to rebellion. I have examined him in your presence and have found no basis for your charges against him. Neither has Herod, for he sent him back to us; as you can see, he has done nothing to deserve death. Therefore, I will punish him and then release him.”

With one voice they cried out, “Away with this man! Release Barabbas to us!” (Barabbas had been thrown into prison for an insurrection in the city, and for murder.)

Wanting to release Jesus, Pilate appealed to them again. But they kept shouting, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”

For the third time he spoke to them: “Why? What crime has this man committed? I have found in him no grounds for the death penalty. Therefore I will have him punished and then release him.”

But with loud shouts they insistently demanded that he be crucified, and their shouts prevailed. So Pilate decided to grant their demand. He released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, the one they asked for, and surrendered Jesus to their will.

As the soldiers led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children.For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’Then “‘they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!”’For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”

Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.”

The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegarand said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.”

There was a written notice above him, which read: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.
One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? 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, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, for the sun stopped shining. 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.

The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, “Surely this was a righteous man.” When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away. But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.

Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the Council, a good and upright man, who had not consented to their decision and action. He came from the Judean town of Arimathea, and he himself was waiting for the kingdom of God. Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body. Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid. It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin.

The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.”

-Luke 22:39-23:56