THE SCRIPTURES, THE CROSS AND THE POWER OF GOD

N. T. Wright

Bishop of Durham

First published in Great Britain in 2005

Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge 36 Causton Street

London SW1P 4ST

Copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2005

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Unless otherwise stated, biblical quotations are either the author’s own translation or are taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 0-281-05770-2

for Michael Sadgrove

Contents

Preface

1 Palm Sunday Mattins

The son and the stone (Matthew 21:33–46)

2 Monday of Holy Week

The king and the guests (Matthew 22:1–14)

3 Tuesday of Holy Week

The tribute and the resurrection (Matthew 22:15–33)

4 Wednesday of Holy Week

The Law and the Lord (Matthew 22:34–46)

5 Maundy Thursday morning

Humbled and exalted (Matthew 23:1–12)

6 Maundy Thursday evening

Betrayal and glory (John 13:21–32)

7 Good Friday

Behold the man! Behold your king! (John 19:1–16a)

8 Easter Vigil

Come and see! Go and tell! (Matthew 28:1–10)

9 Easter morning

New temple, new creation (John 20:1–10)

Preface

In Holy Week 2005 the Dean and Chapter of Durham Cathedral invited me to give the addresses which would carry the week from its dramatic opening on Palm Sunday to its solemn and glorious conclusion on Good Friday and Easter Day itself. This allowed me to work through familiar material in a fresh way, within a context of prayer, liturgy and worship in one of the greatest buildings of the Christian world. This little book reproduces, with a minimum of re-editing, the nine addresses I gave during those eight days.

The services at which I spoke began with Mattins on Palm Sunday. Since the reading that morning was Matthew’s version of the parable of the Wicked Tenants (21:33–46), and since Matthew (like Mark and Luke but in his own way) uses that story and the following material to interpret Palm Sunday on the one hand and look ahead to Good Friday and Easter on the other, I decided that for the next three days, speaking at the evening service of Compline, I would explore the stories in Matthew 22 in the same way, showing how they carry forward and develop the densely integrated themes at the heart of Jesus’ ministry and its extraordinary denouement. Then, on Maundy Thursday morning, we had a service of a different sort, at which most of the diocesan clergy were present to reaffirm their ordination vows, and at which we consecrated the oils which, in obedience to the scriptural command in James 5:14, were to be used ...