Via Crusis Grid Blog: Station 7 Jesus Falls a Second Time
The Stations, or Way of the Cross, is an ancient method of meditating upon Christ’s Suffering and Death. Trace the path of Jesus from His condemnation to His body being laid in a tomb. Bring your senses, and most of all your heart, and walk the Way of the Cross. Take time to read, reflect, pray, and/or sing. Reflect on what Jesus’ journey to the cross means for you, for all.
The way of the cross… rarely do we want to think about this. The surrendered way, the way of laying down my life… I’d rather live in the “way of the resurrection,” the joy that comes after the weeping.
Yet, this week we pause, to remember, and to contemplate, the final steps of Jesus, way of the cross. This week we are invited to the Stations of the Cross, to meditate on the Passion of Christ, stopping to meditate, to actually slow down and think about his movements from being condemned to being laid in the tomb. We are tasked with traveling the Via Dolorosa, to walk with Jesus the road to Golgotha, the way of the cross…
We are invited to pause and mediate on those final steps of surrender and love.
I am participating in a Grid blog, where multiple people will be blogging on the various stations of the cross and linking to their blogs and other blogs. This is a great idea, and a way for us to encounter the way of the cross from a myriad of angles. Please peruse the many posts and be sure to visit on of my favorite bloggers: Best and Worst by Anj.
Station 7: Jesus falls again…
The humanity of Jesus is profound and glaring, as the Son of G-d, the performer of miracles, the One who walked on water, healed the blind, make the lame walk… stumbles and falls.. Bloody and beaten, he moves victoriously toward his death. A death that is unjust, sacrificial and purposeful…the ultimate sacrifice.
It is in these moments that Christ is the most real to me, in the moments that reveal his human frailty and highlight his chosen, deliberate, and continued surrender. When burdens weigh so heavy and weariness overcomes such that jesus falls for the second (or third) time. And it is in these moments that I am confronted with my own stubborn human heart that doesn’t not want to stumble, fall, become bloodied in a sacrificial manner for the benefit of another, out of love for another, in the process of laying down my life, my reputation, my image…my anything… knowingly, purposefully, willingly and willfully…
This humanity of Jesus is compelling. I want to bundle all that the cross required of Jesus into his deity and thereby render such a sacrifice out of my reach, beyond any ability of mine, even with the indwelling Holy Spirit. But the way o the cross is filled with human moments, bringing into full relief the humanity of Jesus’ sacrifice and the willingness to surrender to the Father all that is within the human will and lay it down, willing to die to self for the sake of another…and I am haunted by the call to walk in these footsteps as well…in all my frail and fearful humanity