I am very pleased that all but one of the Lenten Study books has been bought. I hope that it means that those people are using the books to follow the Sunday Readings and to think about what they mean. I have been involved with two groups and I have met with a third. Each of these groups found something different to learn in each Bible passage.

The passion reading is very long, and I hope you will read it carefully for yourselves. Take the Service Book home with you and read it, marking the words which have a message for you.

There were two parts of the Passion reading which always make me think. One is right at the beginning; where the un-named woman anoints Jesus with fabulously expensive perfume. The other is right at the end, when Jesus had been crucified.

The passage reads, "Jesus gave a loud cry, and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. Now when the centurion who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, 'Truly, this man was God's son!' "

In St Mark's version of the crucifixion, Jesus was silent on the cross until at three o'clock he cried with a loud voice, "Eloi, eloi, lema sabacthani" which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Then he gave another loud cry and died. A lonely and forsaken man dying on a cross. Even his disciples and the women who cared for him stood far off.

But there were two things which made this crucifixion different. There was something which made the Roman centurion, who was not a Jew, recognize that Jesus was the son of God. Something about the way in which Jesus died showed that this death was changing the world. At the same time, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. This curtain was a huge and heavy tapestry which hung in front of the most sacred place in the temple. The only person who could go into this holy place was the High Priest, and he only went in once a year. Now the curtain was torn for ever and there was no barrier between the people of the world and the most holy place of God. The curtain was torn from the top to the bottom, showing that it was God who had ripped down the barrier through the death of Christ.

There is a reminder of this event in the letter to the Hebrews. In chapter 10 it says, "We have complete freedom to go into the most holy place by means of the death of Jesus. He opened for us a new way, a living way, through the curtain through his own body."

Jesus was mocked by the soldiers, the two bandits also crucified, the chief priests, the scribes and those who happened to be passing by. They knew it was impossible for a man to survive crucifixion. They never thought the Jesus would break through the barrier of death and open the way to the most holy place of God. But this is what Jesus did; it was for this he came into the world. Jesus was the one who could do this for us, not because he was forced to do so, but because he knew that this was the only way to save those he loved.

Which brings me to another scandal - the woman who poured costly ointment on Jesus' head. The ointment was worth one year's wages for an ordinary labourer. The woman could have sold it and invested the money, or used it to live comfortably for a year. There were some who thought she should have given the money to the poor. By any human measure she wasted it by pouring it on Jesus' head.

But Jesus saw differently. He saw a woman who loved greatly, a woman who loved extravagantly and, yes, wastefully. She did not calculate the value of the ointment, or how she could live at ease, or how many poor she could feed. She only knew that her saviour was going to die and she did what she could. She could not prevent his death, she could not die instead of him, she could not break down the barrier between humanity and God. Those things, Jesus Christ could do. She did what she could and anointed his body beforehand for burial. And Jesus saw the true worth of what she was doing when he said, "Truly I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her."

Our Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed and arrested, before he did what he could by dying on the cross, took bread and wine, and shared it with his disciples, saying, "This is my body, this is my blood, do this in remembrance of me."

These things are memorable because both were showed love poured out in the most generous way for those who were loved, regardless of the consequences. The woman was rebuked and Jesus was reviled, but they both did what they could.

Bishop John Spong says that Jesus was prepared to be "a whole human being, who lived fully, who loved wastefully, and who had the courage to be himself under every set of circumstances.

It was this which inspired the love of the woman who anointed Jesus before his death, it was this which amazed Pilate. It was this which so infuriated the crowd and religious authorities, and was this in the end which inspired the centurion to say, "Truly, this man was the son of God."

Now it is our turn. What will be told in remembrance of us? Will people remember us for our faithfulness in attending worship, or our knowledge of the scriptures, or will they remember us for our love poured out without considering the consequences?

Will we be remembered as those who "lived fully, who loved wastefully, and who had the courage to be ourselves under every set of circumstances."?

God does not ask us all to die on the cross, or to abandon family and friends to serve others. God does not ask us to do anything beyond our strength. It is enough that we have done what we could.