This past Spring our young adults group did a study/discussion by Paul Miller called The Person of Jesus, particularly, the Passion.
If you're not familiar with any of Paul Miller's work, you should check it out. Our discussions about Jesus' emotional state during those last 24 hours were so moving that I wanted to somehow seal those discussions into a piece of art that would help us remember it. Needless to say, when I now read the words "troubled in spirit" or "distressed" as they pertain to Jesus, they now carry a lot more weight.
This piece was originally intended to be solo piano, but as I was running through it one last time our electric player,
Tom Lippincott, began to improvise over the chords. I'm usually not one to throw in a last minute change to a service we've been planning for months, but what he was playing was sooo good, I never hesitated.
The piece has 3 movements (1. Distress, 2. Sweat-drops of Blood, 3. "Is There Another Way?") and was recorded during the Good Friday service on 4/6/12.
