Note: This sermon is intended to be presented before the reading of the Passion narrative as a way to prepare the listeners by reflecting on its significance.

Imagine a Friday night and you're caught in heavy traffic. It's bumper to bumper and you're late. You're in the right hand lane on the freeway and all the cars come to a stop. You look into your rearview mirror and notice that, a long way back, a car has gotten out of line and it's traveling on the shoulder, passing all the other cars that are stuck. Then, much to your amazement, that car stops right in front of you and the driver puts on his left turn signal, motioning to let him cut in front of you. (Apparently when he was growing up his parents told him he was special and he still believes it.) How do you react? Do you ignore him…