Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion, April 7, 2023
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Seven stations of the cross
We all like sheep have gone astray, each following his own way. But the Lord laid upon him the inquity of us all.
ONE. Before the beginning all this was known. So I’ve been told.
And now in the halls of justice Jesus is accused of blasphemy and condemned to death. There is nothing I can do to stop it … or is there? I can at least shout “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
My Father, let this cup pass from me! Yet, not as I will, but you will.
TWO. How heavy can that cross be? A thousand spiritual tons. Jesus’ body bends and cracks and he’s whipped into taking another step. But there are hundreds more to go. Blood drips in his eyes from that awful crown of thorns. I can hear his sighs, endless in his aching lungs. The penitentes in New Mexico, one carrying the cross and his brothers following, know a little of his pain.
It was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured. He was pierced for our offenses and crushed for our sins.
THREE. Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again. Sunday after Sunday, together we say those words. But now Christ has fallen! He does not rise again, he is crushed beneath the cross. His body crumbles as he takes all my sin upon his back. All the sin of all of us, as it was in the beginning, now and ever shall be. No mercy. The late morning sun beats down. A hundred degrees in the shade of this Sodom near Salem, city of David.
Upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole, and by his stripes we were healed.
FOUR. But now, his mother. Mary pushes past the guards and wipes the blood and sweat off Jesus’ head. Her own tears wet the cloth. Mary does not avoid her son’s eyes, darkened by pain but clear with love for her. She whispers in his ear. His lips twitch in recognition. The guards grab her arms and pull her away.
We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin.
FIVE. Suddenly a black man appears beside Jesus, pushed there by the guards, told he must carry the cross of Jesus to Calvary. He’s confused at first, and his son waits in the crowd beside the man fallen on the cobblestones and his father. Simon girds his loins. He picks up Jesus’ cross, Jesus pulls himself up off the street, and leans his body against Simon’s.
Son though he was, Jesus learned obedience from what he suffered; and when he was made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.
SIX. So … many … hostile faces. And then, Veronica. Warm-hearted, soft smile, Veronica tenderly welcomes Jesus. The guards seem not to see her. She brushes tears from her own eyes. Which of my sins is Jesus dying for? He has done nothing wrong! How much more must he suffer because of me? Veronica weeps. Jesus loves her. He remembers the face of Pilate and in the house, his wife.
“Look, I am bringing him out to you, so that you may know I find no guilt in him. Behold the man.” But the chief priests cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!”
SEVEN. Perhaps we all thought God would rescue Jesus from this walk through the city of David up the hill of death. Did Jesus think that too? He falls again, holding on and tearing at Simon’s robe. Nothing breaks his fall. The rocks rip the flesh on his thighs.
God is not rescuing me! I am alone. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
He was oppressed and afflicted but did not open his mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. He was cut off from the land of the living and smitten for the sin of his people, and no one of his generation protested.
TO BE CONTINUED TOMORROW …
I am like a dish that was broken.
The Lord was pleased to crush him in infirmity.
(Isaiah 52, Psalm 31, Hebrews 4, Philippians 2, John 18-19)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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