After this solemn reading of the passion narrative, one stands uncertainly to preach, because surely the power of the story itself moves us by its very rehearsal. It touches each of us at a point unique to ourselves, in this hour of our particular need as we hear it again.

But someone may be asking why do we do this twice in one week. It was only this past Sunday we heard the whole passion narrative according to Matthew, and now today we come to hear John tell it all over again! But it isn't the same story, is it? I'll leave it to you to go home and separate out the details between the two. The point is that just as we each hear the story speak to us in relation to the needs we bring today, so the Gospel writers recorded it in terms of what was important to them and the people to whom the…