Prayers of Confession Based from John 18 and 19

Prayers of Confession based from John 18 and 19

O holy Jesus, we must ask ourselves on this holy day how we would have reacted had we been with you on this day so many long years ago. Knowing ourselves as only we and you know us, we ask:

Would we have been the betraying follower who, for a small price, led the officers into the garden to arrest you?

Would we have been one of those who fell to the ground at the very mention of your name?

Would we have continued to question your identity, even after you have told us who you really are?

Would we have drawn a sword and taken revenge against those who were out to get you?

Would we have joined in your binding and your arrest, going along with the pervasion mood of the day?

Would we have followed from the garden to the courtyard – staying at a safe distance from the impending danger?

Would we have warmed ourselves by the fire of the enemy?

Would we – to protect our own skin - have denied ever having known you, much less believed you to be “the Christ, the Son of the Living God”?

Would we have passed you off to someone else to pass judgment, to condemn you to death?

Would we have continued to question your identity, even after you have told us who you really are?

Would we have condemned you to die?

Would we have shouted, “Give us Barabbas!” or “Give me Jesus!”?

Would we have joined in – or at least given our ascent to – your brutal mistreatment?

Would we have elevated our national pride over your lordship, saying, “We have no higher authority than those who govern us.”?

Would we have volunteered to help you carry the cross to Golgotha?

Would we have been able to watch as you were lifted up to die on a cross between thieves?

Would we have tossed dice to obtain a valuable souvenir of your ministry?

Would we have wept with Mary at the loss of her Son?

Would we have been jealous when you were not the disciple who was assigned to take care of your mother in your absence?

Would we have felt the thirst with you and wanted desperately to quench your dryness.

Would we have donated a valuable plot of our own property to provide you a burial place?

Would we have treated your body with great care and respect as we placed it in the tomb?

Would we have remembered your word to us that you would conquer death and rise again?

How would we have been involved in this, the day you breathed your last breath?