Posts Tagged: stations of the cross

February 25, 2007

The Fourteen Stations of the Cross

Fourteen Stations of the Cross Table of Hyper-link Contents: 1. Jesus Is Condemned to Death. 2. The Cross is Laid Upon Him. 3. Jesus’ First Fall. 4. Jesus Encounters His Mother. 5. Simon Carries Jesus’ Cross. 6. Veronica Wipes Jesus’ Face with a Cloth. 7. Jesus Falls a Second Time. 8. Jesus Speaks to Jerusalem Women. 9. Jesus’ Third fall. 10. Jesus is Stripped. 11. Jesus is Crucified. 12. Jesus’ Death on the Cross. 13. Jesus Taken Down. 14. Jesus Entombed.

First Station of the Cross: Jesus Is Condemned to Death

ASV Mark 15:1-5 And as soon as it was morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole Council. And they bound Jesus and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate. 2 And Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” And he answered him, “You have said so.” 3 And the chief priests accused him of many things. 4 And Pilate again asked him, “Have you no answer to make? See how many charges they bring against you.” 5 But Jesus made no further answer, so that Pilate was amazed.

Idealists, preachers, magic workers, and zealots were a dime a dozen in the Mediterranean world of the 1st century. This world was not short of religious, political, or social idealism, by any stretch of the imagination. Read more…

Second Station of the Cross: The Cross is Laid Upon Him

The abuse of Jesus began long before his actual crucifixion. The abuse, according to the Synoptic Gospels, actually begins with the Council (i.e., high priest, chief priests, elders, and scribes), and their mocking, spitting, blindfolding, taunting, and punching. Jesus was then delivered to Pilate for further mistreatment before he was carted off to Herod and finally shipped back to Pilate where he became the recipient of a serious scourging.

Roman flogging was brutal and often resulted in the death of the individual. The practice was used in the attempt to speed up the end-result of crucifixion. Read more…

Third Station of the Cross: Jesus’ First Fall

Jesus fell. This event is not recorded in the gospels, but in Christian legend and memory. Is it hard to imagine? No. Jesus of Nazareth, at this point, would have been seriously injured and extremely weak from the beatings, scourgings, and subsequent loss of blood. Jesus would have found it very, very difficult to just walk to the place of his crucifixion, let alone carry his own cross.

He falls, once, twice, three times. The continued snap of a Roman whip pushes him forward. Read more…

Fourth Stationof the Cross: Jesus Encounters His Mother

Docitism minimizes the human drama between mother and son. Jesus of Nazareth was a son, in the fullest sense of the word. He most assuredly lived his life as a son. His mother lovingly cleansed him when he soiled himself miserably as an infant. She fed him when he stomped and screamed for nourishment with all the fierce, selfish, and necessarily instinctive temper displayed by infants to this very day. She nursed his bloody elbows and knees on more than a few occasions when his outside play was performed with too much reckless but youthful abandonment. Mary was mother. Jesus was son.

The encounter of Mary and Jesus, which is not attested to by scripture, but by Christian legend, as he was being forced toward his crucifixion, must have been heart-wrenching. Read more…

Fifth Station of the Cross: Simon Carries Jesus’ Cross

Exhaustion is the human body’s way of telling us it needs a break. We all are incurably strapped to physical limitations. A serious lack of sleep magnifies these limitations. Jesus of Nazareth is no exception. He must have been incredibly exhausted. The weight of his cross must have been steadily multiplying as his flayed arms, shoulders, and back struggled wearily beneath it. How much further could he be pushed, physically speaking? Not much further …

Jesus was beaten and ferociously lacerated by a gruesome Roman scourge. He was also deprived of sleep. Read more…

Sixth Station of the Cross: Veronica Wipes Jesus’ Face with a Cloth

The Gospels say nothing about a woman named Veronica actually wiping Jesus’ face. The Gospel of Luke, however, does cite a small group of people following Jesus as he was marched toward his crucifixion. Women were a part of this group, if not the entire composition of it! These women were beating their breasts and wailing for him, says Luke. I’m sure this would be so. Jesus was adored, after all, by many, many women.

Jesus had enough time to turn to these women, and, according to Luke, say, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.” Read more…

Seventh Station of the Cross: Jesus Falls a Second Time

Jesus falls, a second time. The event is not recorded in the gospels, but it is not difficult to imagine. Jesus probably fell a dozen or more times, given his mental and physical condition.

I wonder what flashbacks were playing in Jesus’ mind at this point? I’m sure he, as most of us do, was rewinding to where he had been, and cognitively screening his own home movies. Read more…

Eighth Station of the Cross: Jesus Speaks to Jerusalem Women

ASV Luke 23:26-31: 26 And as they led him away, they seized one Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, and laid on him the cross, to carry it behind Jesus. 27 And there followed him a great multitude of the people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for him. 28 But turning to them Jesus said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. 29 For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ 30 Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ 31 For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?”

Women stayed with Jesus until the very end. Perhaps, in him, they saw their freedom, or equality? Perhaps they invested their personal worth in the kingdom to which he pointed? Read more…

Ninth Station of the Cross: Jesus’ Third Fall

One fall is … a fall. A fall is just a fall, usually. A second fall is a sure sign of repetitive stumbling. Yes, a bit of vertigo may be the trouble. A third fall is, however, no fall at all. It is a continuation; a small, isolated look at a much larger and combined chain of events. Yes, a third fall is but one small frame of a moving picture composed of many, many similar shots. Jesus did not fall once, twice, or three times. No, Jesus bounced, rolled, scraped, and crawled his way – the entire way – toward Golgatha, aka “The Place of the Skull.” Read more…