Note: This sermon is more effective if the following three things are done. First, print the words to the hymn "O Sacred Head" in the bulletin for the day so that people can follow along and meditate upon them. Second, have a choir or a solo voice, or a combination of the two, sing the phrases as they come in the sermon. And third, use plenty of pauses and times for meditation throughout the sermon. A deliberate delivery is needed.

As we gather on this Good Friday, it is appropriate for us to focus on the cross, and particularly, on the One who hung there. To help us do that, we will use that most solemn hymn, "O Sacred Head, Now Wounded." I invite you to meditate on each phrase as outlined in the bulletin. Let the words and their meanings penetrate to the deeper parts of our lives and …