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Trinity Celtic Cross

FIVE VIEWS OF THE SORROWFUL WAY

(REFLECTIONS FOR THE FIVE WEEKS OF LENT ON EIGHT SCRIPTURAL STATIONS OF THE CROSS)

© 2013 The Rev. Dr. Anthony HutchinsonRector, Trinity Episcopal Church

Ashland, Oregon

Introduction

The “Sorrowful Way” (Via Dolorosa) commemorating our Lord’s sufferings has long been a Christian devotion, and was part of the Holy Week liturgy in Jerusalem from the mid-fourth century on. The Sorrowful Way, also known as the Way of the Cross (Via Crucis), consists of 14 crosses each with a separate bloody and dramatic scene, some drawn from scripture and others from legend and pious imagination. Recent innovations have included a reduced form of the 14 stations including only the 8 scriptural scenes. The Bishop of Rome, H.H. John Paul II, promulgated in 1991 a 14-station Via Crucis including only scriptural scenes; this has been adopted by the Anglican tradition in the Church of England’s Times and Seasons supplement to Common Worship. As a means of balancing the at-times perceived morbid tone of the Via Crucis, John Paul II also fostered the practice in Easter of a joyful 14-station commemoration of the Resurrection called the Via Lucis (the Way of Light).

The Sorrowful Way presented here includes eight scenes all drawn from scripture and blending the eight scriptural scenes of the traditional 14-station Via Crucis with scenes drawn from the new 14-station scriptural form. It begins and closes with an introductory and closing meditation on the whole passion rather than specific scenes in it. We have used different representations of the Cross for each station rather than graphic depictions of the scenes.

The five views of the Sorrowful Way presented here are intended to focus the heart and mind on various contextual meanings of the scenes rather than on the gory dramatic details of each scene. We suggest that during each of the five weeks of Lenten preparation for Holy Week and Easter, you take one view of the Sorrowful Way as you walk through the Church and perform the devotion.

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THE SORROWFUL WAY

Opening Meditation

1. Jesus is Condemned, Scourged, and Mocked 2. Jesus Takes up and Carries his Cross 3. Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry the Cross 4. Jesus Comforts Jerusalem’s Women 5. Jesus is Nailed to the Cross 6. Jesus Puts his Mother and Disciple into Each Other’s Care 7. Jesus Dies 8. Jesus is Laid in the Tomb

Closing Meditation

FIVE VIEWS OF THE SORROWFUL WAY (ONE FOR EACH WEEK IN LENT)

A. THE WAY OF THE SCRIPTURES Canonical Narratives on Each Station p. 4

B. THE WAY OF THE ICONS The Meanings of the Various Crosses before You p. 13

C. THE WAY OF THE KINGDOM All Stations seen through the Lens of the Reign of God and Social Justice p. 23

D. THE WAY OF HOPE The Presence of the Absent God in Each Station p. 33

E. THE WAY OF CONTEMPLATION Reflection and Lectio Divina for Each Station p. 43

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A. THE WAY OF THE SCRIPTURESCanonical Narratives on Each Station

OPENING MEDITATION

“The Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. … If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it” (Luke 9: 22-24).

Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen. (Book of Common Prayer)

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1. JESUS IS CONDEMNED, SCOURGED AND MOCKED

“As soon as it was morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council. They bound Jesus, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate. Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” He answered him, “You say so.” Then the chief priests accused him of many things. Pilate asked him again, “Have you no answer? See how many charges they bring against you.” But Jesus made no further reply, so that Pilate was amazed. … So Pilate, …after flogging Jesus, handed him over to be crucified.” (Mark 15:1-5, 15) “Then Pilate took Jesus and had him scourged. And the soldiers wove a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they dressed him in a purple robe. They kept coming up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and striking him on the face” (John 19:1-3).

Kind Jesus, for our sake you were condemned, beaten, and mocked. Bless us with compassion, fairness, and respect for others. Help us never to condemn, abuse, or ridicule any of these, your little ones. Through your Holy Cross we pray, Amen.

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2. JESUS TAKES UP AND CARRIES HIS CROSS

“When the chief priests and the police saw him, they shouted, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him; I find no case against him.” … Pilate asked them, “Shall I crucify your king?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but the emperor.” Then he handed him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus; and carrying the cross by himself, he went out to what is called The Place of the Skull, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha. (John 19:6, 15-17)

Kind Jesus, for our sake you bore the weight of the instrument of your own torture and death, as you bore the rejection and hatred of those who called for your death. Bless us with compassion, fairness, and respect for others. Help us never to add to the burden you bore, or the burdens that others bear. Through your Holy Cross we pray, Amen.

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3. SIMON OF CYRENE HELPS JESUS CARRY THE CROSS

“They compelled a passer-by, who was coming in from the country, to carry his cross; it was Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus.” (Mark 15:21)

Kind Jesus, you lost all strength in bearing your cross, and had to be helped by the stranger Simon. Bless us with strength to help others, and to be able to ask others for help. Through your Holy Cross we pray, Amen.

4. JESUS COMFORTS THE WOMEN OF JERUSALEM

“Many followed him, among them women beating their breasts and wailing for him. But Jesus turned to them and said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For days [of war] are surely coming when it will be said, ‘Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.’” (Luke 23:27-31)Kind Jesus, you suffered as one singled out for pain and death, but saw pain and death as our common lot. Help us remember always to number our days and give us strength and courage to accept our common humanity in solidarity and love. Through your Holy Cross we pray, Amen.

5. JESUS IS NAILED TO THE CROSS

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“When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” And they cast lots to divide his clothing. And the people stood by, watching; but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!” The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” There was also an inscription over him, “This is the King of the Jews.” One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” He replied, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.’” (Luke 23:33-43)

Kind Jesus, have mercy on us sinners, and welcome us, we pray, into your kingdom. Through your Holy Cross we pray, Amen.

6. JESUS PUTS HIS MOTHER AND BELOVED DISCIPLE

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INTO EACH OTHER’S CARE

“Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.” (John 19:25-27)

Kind Jesus, at the hour of your death, you worried about your mother and placed her in the care of your beloved disciple. By so doing you placed your disciple into her care as well. Bless us with compassion and love, and help us care for each other. Through your Holy Cross we pray, Amen.

7. JESUS DIES

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“It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, while the sun’s light failed; and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” Having said this, he breathed his last.” (Luke 23:44-46)

Kind Jesus, without you we are in darkness and our holy places are desolate. Help us to surrender to you as you surrendered your life to your Father. Through your Holy Cross we pray, Amen.

8. JESUS IS LAID IN THE TOMB

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“When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who was also a disciple of Jesus. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus; then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. So Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock. He then rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb and went away.” (Matthew 27:57-60)

Kind Jesus, through the pity of another only were you buried. Take our place, we pray, in our own graves, and bring us out from death to life in you. Give us hearts that love and hands that reach out and help. Through your Holy Cross we pray, Amen.

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CLOSING MEDITATION

Jesus said, “Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it yet.” … Jesus answered, … “when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself.” He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die. (John12: 20-33)

“For the message about the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God… We proclaim Christ on the Cross, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.” (1 Cor. 1: 18-25)


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B. THE WAY OF THE ICONSThe Meanings of the Various Crosses before You

OPENING MEDITATION

The Jerusalem Cross is a Greek Cross (one with vertical and horizontal arms of equal length) surrounded by four smaller Greek Crosses. The Greek Cross symbolizes the Church and its faith as well as simply the sufferings of our Lord. The large one here stands for the Church throughout the whole world; the four smaller ones the Church in the four “corners” of the world. The five crosses together recall the five wounds of the Crucified Lord (nails in two hands and two feet, and the spear thrust in the side.) Often called the Crusaders’ Cross because it was a symbol of the medieval Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem, the Jerusalem Cross is a symbol of the National (Episcopal) Cathedral in Washington D.C., and, surrounded by a circle and the words “Christ died for You,” forms the Episcopal Service Cross given to all Episcopalian members of the U.S. Armed Forces.

Merciful God, whose glory and beauty fill all creation, so fill us with your grace that we, as heralds of Christ’s love, may bring the Church’s hope and faith into all of life, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

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1. Jesus is Condemned, Scourged, and Mocked

The Latin Cross symbolizes the sufferings of our Lord. It represents the Roman instrument of death by torture and slow suffocation for those found guilty of rebellion against the Empire. The point was to make an ugly and shameful public spectacle of the death throes of the condemned, in order to cow others into submission. The cross was an upright post with a topping crossbeam, forming a T. At the top of this often was added a small sign, the titulum, stating the crime of the condemned, together forming theshape of the traditional Latin Cross. With a painted or carved representation of Christ (a corpus) affixed, the Latin Cross is called a Crucifix and is intended to bring graphic detail to our remembrance of Jesus’ Passion. An Empty Cross, the unadorned plain Latin Cross preferred by most Protestants and seen here, reminds us that Christ was raised from the dead, and that the sufferings of Jesus are not the end of the story.

Kind Jesus, you unjustly suffered the torments and death of a traitor and terrorist. But it was for our sake that you suffered and died, and for our sake that you rose again from the dead. Give us faith in you and thankful hearts. Through your Holy Cross we pray, Amen.

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The Tau Cross, named for the Greek letter “T,” probably most accurately represents the actual shape of the Cross upon which Jesus died. The upright was usually a permanent fixture in a public space; the crossbeam a heavy but portable add-on that the condemned was forced to carry to the execution ground where he would be affixed to it before it was dropped into place on the upright. Early Christians believed that the prophet Ezekiel had prophesied the Cross of Jesus as a sign for Christians when he said the final letter of the Hebrew alphabet, Tav (originally drawn ✕), would be written upon the foreheads of the faithful as a symbol of their enduring to the end. In the Greek translation of the Old Testament they used, Hebrew Tav became the Greek Tau.

During the Middle Ages, the Tau was used as a talisman to protect against contagion for those caring for lepers. Saint Francis of Assisi embraced work with lepers as a sign of God’s universal love, and took the Tau cross as a symbol of the believers’ following Christ to the end. The Tau Cross before you bears an image of St. Francis, as an example of how we can follow Jesus. Pious tradition reports that Francis so followed Jesus in bearing the cross that he received the wounds of Christ on the Cross, the stigmata, in his own flesh.

Kind Jesus, you are the first and the last, our origin who calls us to follow you to the end. Give us grace to take up the cross and follow you like St. Francis, revealing your love and grace to all. Through your Holy Cross we pray, Amen.

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The Celtic Cross is a stylized Latin Cross with the intersection surrounded by a halo or circle. Dating from the time of St. Patrick in the mid-5th century, its symbolism is rich. The circle is said variously to represent the sun or the moon, and was part of Patrick’s effort to place a Christian face on pagan monuments and symbols. The crossbeam represents the phenomenal world, the upright the spiritual, and the added circular “glory” the thin place of the intersection of daily life and God’s Spirit, and of the corporeal works of mercy that result. The earliest stone “high crosses” show that the “glory” had a practical purpose of supporting the weight of the heavy crossbeam. The knots and flourishes that adorn a high cross represent variously the Holy Trinity, the beauty and complexity of creation, or the labyrinth-like turning paths that our life in the spirit must take.

Kind Jesus, you accepted the help of the stranger from afar, Simon, in bearing the heavy load of your cross. Fill us with your spirit that we may bear up others in their need, and let your love shine through our works and our lives. Through your Holy Cross we pray, Amen.

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4. Jesus Comforts the Women of Jerusalem

This is one type of Ethiopian Cross, where a stylized Greek Cross has been placed on an upright to make it resemble a Latin Cross. As such, it symbolizes both the faith of the Church and the sufferings of Jesus. Some Ethiopian crosses are so ornate that they resemble fans or elaborate keys, stressing the top three projections as a sign of the Holy Trinity. For more than 1600 years, both men and women in Ethiopia have been given crosses at their baptism to wear throughout their life around their neck on a blue string representing the sky. In the cross before you, the five squares including and surrounding the intersection represent the five wounds of the Crucified Lord (nails in two hands and two feet and the spear thrust to the side). It is a symbol of the ultimate intersection of the human and divine, “God on the Cross.” The knot work adorning this cross is part of the woodcarving tradition throughout North Africa that usually adorns royal or sacred objects.

Kind Jesus, you call to you men and women of all nations, of all backgrounds, to comfort and bless them. Give us with the gift of true compassion and help us comfort others. Through your Holy Cross we pray, Amen.

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A Prisoner of Conscience Cross is a Latin Cross formed from or decorated with barbed wire or razor wire. It stresses the harshness of the sentence given Jesus, that the Romans killed Jesus for a political offense, and that Jesus died because of who he was. In this, Jesus was sharing a fate with many: victims of the Nazi Holocaust, prisoners of conscience in every land and place, and people persecuted to death simply because of who they are. Gay college student Matthew Shepard was tortured and hung to die on a barbed wire fence outside of Laramie Wyoming in 1998. Emmet Till, a young African American, in 1955 was beaten, mutilated, shot, and drowned with a stone weight tied around his neck with barbed wire. The simple cross before you is made from weathered wood and barbed wire from a ranch in the western United States.

Kind Jesus, you threw in your lot with all who are persecuted, tortured, and murdered on account of what they believe or who they are. Give us strength and courage to stand against oppression, prejudice, and injustice, and help us to break every yoke, loose every bond, and cut every sharp wire fence that hinders and hurts. Through your Holy Cross we pray, Amen.

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6. JESUS PUTS HIS MOTHER AND BELOVED DISCIPLEINTO EACH OTHER’S CARE

The San Damiano Cross is a replica of the painted icon crucifix that St. Francis of Assisi was praying before in a ruined village church when he first heard the voice of God tell him, “Rebuild my church.” Jesus is here seen as strong and loving; his halo already includes the glorified Greek Cross. This contrasts with the regal Christ on the cross in earlier centuries and the suffering, sick and dying Christ of the high and late Middle Ages. Above the head of Christ is the Latin inscription “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.” At Jesus’ right are his Mother and Beloved Disciple; at his left, other witnesses to the crucifixion: Mary Magdalene, Mary the Mother of James, and the centurion whose servant Christ healed (Matthew 8:5-13). Angels are at Jesus’ hands; and above his head is the scene of him coming forth triumphant from the tomb and being received by the angels of heaven and God the Father’s hand of blessing.

Kind Jesus, you revealed your strength, love, and glory while you were on the cross. Bless us to take strength from your strength, and, following you, rebuild your Church. Through your Holy Cross we pray, Amen.

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7. JESUS DIES

The Latin Crucifix includes a carved portrayal of the suffering Christ on the cross. Above his head is the titulum, here abbreviated to INRI (Iesus Nazaraenus, Rex Iudorum, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews”). The classic portrayal is now known to be somewhat in error. Archaeology has recovered bones of crucified prisoners from this period; they reveal that the nails were driven through the wrists not the palms of the hands, and that the legs were turned to one side and the nails driven through the heels or lower ankles rather than the top of the foot. The point in both cases was to secure the victim soundly to the wood, and crush the major nerves of the arms and legs so as to cause the maximum pain and induce the greatest degree of paralysis. Crucifixion was one of the tools of a vast system of state-sponsored terrorism practiced against the Empire’s subjects: horror, unimaginable suffering, and dehumanization were put on display as a means of discouraging other acts of rebellion.

Kind Jesus, through death you achieved respite from your sufferings on the hard wood of the cross. Bless us not to fear death, but to trust in you. Through your Holy Cross we pray.

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The Budded Cross is a Latin Cross with tri-foil clusters at the end of each arm. The clusters represent the budding of a tree in early spring, and is a foretaste of the flowering of the cross in the resurrection on Easter morning. Their three-leafed form represents the Holy Trinity, again underscoring the idea of “God on the Cross.” The “IHS” in the center of this cross is an abbreviation of the Latin name IESUS (“Jesus”) using an “H” to stand for E in the Greek alphabet, eta (H). It is also understood as an acronym for the phrase used by the Emperor Constantine in the 4th century to describe his use of the cross as an Imperial standard, “IN HOC SIGNO, VINCES (with this sign, be victorious).”

Kind Jesus, your body laid in the tomb of a stranger is but the seed of a glorious resurrection yet to come. Refresh and make us new, bringing life and hope where once was death and despair. Through your Holy Cross we pray, Amen.

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CLOSING MEDITATION

The Christ the King Cross follows the iconography of crucifixes in the early Middle Ages: a regal, richly clothed Christ on the Cross who is already ruling the world as Lord. It seeks to make visible the truth of the Creed saying that Jesus, “ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father,” and of Saint Paul’s affirmation that at the end of time, “every knee shall bow and every tongue confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord.” This cross has the winged symbols of the Four Evangelists at the end of each arm: Man (Matthew), Lion (Mark), Ox (Luke), and Eagle (John).

Kind Jesus, you were raised on high on the cross to bring all people unto you, and thus are known as Lord of Lords, and King of Kings. Bless us to show forth your love and grace, that all may be thankful for your saving and loving sacrifice. Through your Holy Cross we pray, Amen.

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C. THE WAY OF THE KINGDOMAll Stations seen through the Lens of the Reign of God and Social Justice

OPENING MEDITATION

Jesus preaches the Good News of the coming of God’s Reign: how God, not Caesar or Herod, is King. His parables tell what the world might be like if we allow God to be fully in charge, right here, right now. Good News to the poor is what his message is about, and as a result, the powerful rulers and elites who are in charge feel threatened by his message and they condemn him to die.

Kind Jesus, even though you knew that it would bring about your death, you took your message of Good News for the poor to Jerusalem. Help us to so have faith in you, that we might be fearless in working for and bringing Good News to those in need. Through your Holy Cross we pray, Amen.

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1. JESUS IS CONDEMNED, SCOURGED, AND MOCKED

Jesus was trapped by a system of “justice” that was not just. The Romans and the religious leaders in Jerusalem were “authorities” whose power came from violence and oppression. The Pax Romana (Roman Peace) was upheld by a system of brutality and fear of which crucifixion was a small part. A leader of one of the peoples conquered by the Romans said they “leave behind the desolation of war and call it ‘peace.’” But such authority and rule are part of larger, unseen forces of evil at work in the world around us: “For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). In our own day, what is called “peace” and “security” involves such things as the death penalty, brutal prisons, torture, drone strikes, the criminalization of the poor and homeless, the exclusion of strangers in our midst as “illegals,” seemingly unending war, and culturally sanctioned systematic abuse of women and children.

Kind Jesus, you were condemned to torture and death by spiritual forces of darkness in our world appearing as law, government, and authority. Drive from us the illusion that violence is redemptive. Give us strength to name and engage these powers still at work, and to struggle for the coming of your kingdom. Through your Holy Cross we pray, Amen.

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Jesus takes up a heavy burden and carries it until he is exhausted. Many of us are also oppressed by heavy burdens: failure to find work or housing, trying to get by on less than living wages, having a hard time just paying bills, worrying about debts, raising children in dangerous neighborhoods and inadequate schools, suffering from abusive bosses, being unable to afford needed health care and medicines, living on fixed incomes, or struggling in other ways to make it in this world. War, natural disaster, and environmental degradation are heavy burdens for many around the globe.

Kind Jesus, open our eyes to the world around us. Help us see clearly the burdens that we and others carry. Give us serenity, strength, and courage to work to eliminate systems of oppression that place burdens on people. Give us compassion to lighten or eliminate the burdens of others. Through your Holy Cross we pray, Amen.

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When Jesus became too weak to carry the crossbeam on which he was to be nailed, the soldiers used a legal prerogative, and compelled a passerby to carry it. It was after all was a tool of execution and thus part of their military baggage. Jesus earlier had taught, “when a soldier compels you to carry baggage for a mile, carry it for him twice as far” (Matthew 5:41). This was not a command to docilely accept oppression. Revolts had broken out when local populations found themselves too far to return home after carrying soldiers’ luggage far afield, so a standing order had been issued that a soldier could only compel people to carry baggage for a mile. Jesus was encouraging his listeners to subvert Roman authority by carrying far beyond what standing orders allowed, thus forcing the oppressors to get into trouble with their own superiors. Like turning the other cheek so that a socially demeaning back-handed slap had to be followed by a social-equal open-hand slap, going the second mile was an act of subversion. Simon of Cyrene, the passerby from Northern Africa thus compelled, likely later became a Christian, for he is introduced in the narrative as the father of Alexander and Rufus, apparently two Christians well known to the Roman Christian community for which Mark wrote his Gospel.

Kind Jesus, give us strength not only to help bear the burdens of the downtrodden, but courage to stand up to their oppressors by weakening and undermining the systems they use to oppress others. Through your Holy Cross we pray, Amen.

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Crucifixion was public because it was meant to terrorize restive subject peoples into submission. It message was, “If you even think about fighting against Rome, this and worse will happen to you and your families.” Any show of angry support for the condemned by the crowds was itself a capital offense. But here the women of Jerusalem weep and lament, and the soldiers allow it. The weeping and wailing of women was seen as an appropriate soundtrack for the visual horror show the Romans aimed at with each crucifixion. Women were seen as powerless, and their weeping was an expression of the despair and terror crucifixion sought to instill. But Jesus turns it around. By his concern for the weeping women, his telling them that they need to weep for their own sorrows, not his, and his pointing to a day of universal fear and sorrow (even for the oppressors?), Jesus calls the bluff of the Roman terror charade. He knows that the first shall be last and the last first, and that oppressors one day will cease their oppressing.

Kind Jesus, you told the women on the roadside that the suffering of one human being is part of the suffering of us all, and turned their despairing sorrow into compassion and solidarity. Give us hearts, we pray, to suffer with others, and to hold them in a place of stillness and peace. Through your Holy Cross we pray, Amen.

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Jesus had predicted it, saying that if he took his message of the Reign of God to Jerusalem, they would kill him. When Peter said, “No, it doesn’t have to be that way,” Jesus replied “Get away from me Satan! … If any want to follow me, let them pick up their cross and follow me!” (Mark 8:31-34) Jesus had not followed such siren voices telling him to quiet his message and not go to Jerusalem. In full awareness of what lay in store, he persevered. He went to Jerusalem and challenged the authority of the Temple leadership and its cozy relationship with Rome. Now he is caught in the net he predicted. As the nails pierce his wrists and ankles, as he and his crossbeam are roughly dropped into place atop the upright, Jesus prays that God forgive his tormentors. Even affixed to the cross, Jesus challenges their authority. His prayer is a declaration that this atrocity is not right or just: it is a wrong, and needs forgiving. He thus himself walks the second mile and turns the other cheek, forgiving the soldiers as if he were their equal, not just the piece of seditious meat, soon to be dead, that they see as they nail him to the wood.

Kind Jesus, you forgave those who executed you and by so doing declared their act wrong. Give us hearts to forgive the unforgiveable and boldly name wrong. Through your Holy Cross we pray, Amen.

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6. JESUS PUTS HIS MOTHER AND BELOVED DISCIPLE INTO EACH OTHER’S CARE

When Jesus began his ministry people accused him of abandoning his mother and relations. His family thought he had gone mad and tried to pressure him to give up his mission. He reacted by saying that his true family consisted on those who follow him, not blood relations (Mark 3: 31-35). Here, as he hangs dying, he sees his mother, inconsolable at the horror of seeing her son die so wretchedly. He puts her into the care of the beloved disciple, and this ideal disciple—and thus all Jesus’ disciples—into her care. His immediate family and his faith family are thus reconciled and brought together in his death. The Cross resolves the conflict often seen between our obligations of special care for those closest to us (family, nation, co-religionists) and of general beneficence for all.

Kind Jesus, you joined your mother and disciples together in caring for each other. Give us hearts to pursue justice and well-being for all as well as care for those who most depend on us. Through your Holy Cross we pray, Amen.

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7. JESUS DIES

Jesus taught, “Those who seek to save their own lives shall lose them, and those who give up their lives for the sake of God’s Reign will find them” (cf. Mark 8:35, Matthew 16:25, and Luke 9:24). The Romans put Jesus to death because he challenged the powers that be, and said that God was Ruler, not Caesar or Herod. Jesus could have avoided this fate by choosing not to go to Jerusalem and challenge the Powers. But he persisted in God’s call to proclaim the arrival of God’s Reign. Jesus’ “Take up your cross and follow me” means “You need to do things that will get you killed if you really want to have life! Stick your head in the hangman’s noose! Persist in challenging injustice and wrong as I challenged them, regardless of the cost.”

Kind Jesus, you were bold and did not fear the worst sort of death, if only you could herald in word and deed the Good News of God’s Reign. Make us bold to advance God’s Reign, and take away our fear of punishment and death. Through your Holy Cross we pray, Amen.

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Joseph of Arimathea was wealthy enough to have his own newly cut tomb, but compassionate enough to offered it as a burial place for the body of Jesus, which otherwise would have been thrown into a shared common grave for poverty cases. Legend tells that Joseph was a tin merchant, whose business dealings took him as far away as the British Isles, where he earlier may have taken his nephew Jesus as a teenager. He is said later to have planted at Glastonbury a living sprig from the crown of thorns. Like the budding cross, it sprouted and grew into a great thorn bush on Glastonbury Tor. Joseph is thus seen as one of the founders of the Church in England. The key to his role in the passion narratives, however, is this: he had compassion on Jesus and offered his wealth in a gesture of honor and reverence, risking punishment by offering a decent burial place for the executed rebel.

Kind Jesus, give us hearts full of compassion and willingness to risk our safety and wealth to help the oppressed, the rejected, and the universally condemned. Through your Holy Cross we pray, Amen.

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CLOSING MEDITATION

As Jesus is laid in the tomb after his crucifixion, it looks as if the Empire has won. All his talk about the coming Reign of God seems to have been proven false and killed with him. But he had already predicted this: “Then Jesus began to teach his disciples that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. (Mark 8:31). He was probably simply quoting the Book of Hosea to express his hope in God in spite of impending death: “[the Lord] has struck us, but he will bind our wounds. He will revive us after two days; on the third day he will raise us up, to live before him” (Hosea 6:1-2). He also had compared the Reign of God to a seed growing secretly, with people unaware of its sprouting and growth. The bodily reappearance of Jesus on Easter, after the horror of the loss of all hope, is at the heart of our Christian faith that the Kingdom will indeed come, and indeed is already present.

Kind Jesus, give us eyes to see through the gloom, and hearts to hope through the despair. Help us work and strive for the Reign of God and bring liberty to the oppressed. Through your Holy Cross we pray, Amen.

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D. THE WAY OF HOPEThe Presence of the Absent God in Each Scene

OPENING MEDITATION

Elie Wiesel in his book Night tells of something he saw as a young prisoner in Auschwitz. He and his fellow prisoners are forced to watch the hanging of a young boy by the Germans. The child is still alive when Wiesel files past the scaffold and hears someone wonder aloud, “Where is God? Where is He?” Another prisoner points to the child and declares, “There God is — God is hanging there...” God on the gallows—human cruelty ruining human trust and faith—is the opposite of God enthroned. But in his preaching of the coming of the Reign of God, Jesus saw God busy at work exactly where we usually expect least to find God: “blessed are the poor, the hungry, mourners, the humble” (Matt. 5). For Jesus, hunger, yearning, dependence, and suffering are all where God’s active presence and saving work lie, and are not signs of God’s curse, punishment, or absence. Jesus is not trying to belittle suffering, or say, “it’s not all that bad.” Rather, he is magnifying the grace of God. God is the answer to, not the source of, horror. In calling us to follow him and take up our cross, he is saying, “blessed are the crucified, for God shall raise them.” Only God on the Cross can redeem the death of God and can heal our vision of God on the gallows.

Kind Jesus, you trusted in your Father, “the God who hides himself from us” (Isaiah 45:15). Mercifully open our eyes that we may see, with you, God at work in the world around us, especially, like your crucifixion, where God seems most absent. Through your Holy Cross we pray, Amen.

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1. JESUS IS CONDEMNED, SCOURGED, AND MOCKED

Pilate’s parody of justice and ironic “King of the Jews” sign, the soldiers’ cruel jokes and sarcasm of beating Jesus nearly unconscious with their “prophesy!” game and then dressing him as a king with a “crown” of piercing thorns, Herod Antipas’ sarcasm in making him up and draping a “gorgeous” robe around him before sending him back to Pilate—all this was sick, twisted, and bitter humor aimed at a man who had told jokes and funny stories most of his life. God at work where we least expect: Blessed is the Ridiculed One, for he is God’s true jester and joke on the twisted world. It is Jesus, in rising, who shall have the last, best, laugh, one filled with love and not bitterness.

Kind Jesus, those who killed you twisted not only thorn branches into a piercing crown, but twisted also the gift of humor you so richly showed in your life into nasty cruelty. Give us hearts of joy to laugh and rejoice in goodness and not cruelty. Through your Holy Cross we pray, Amen.

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The burdens we bear often crush us. We must not blame God for them, or see them as punishments from God, or signs that God does not exist, or does not love us. It is God in our hearts who tells us that harsh burdens are wrong, and God in our hearts who gives us hope and courage to bear the unbearable. God at work where we least expect: Blessed are those crushed by burdens, for God will give them relief.

Kind Jesus, you felt alone and abandoned as you began to carry your cross. Give us faith to see that there is no situation so bad that God cannot help it, improve it, or correct it. Through your Holy Cross we pray, Amen.


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Though the Romans forced Simon to carry Jesus’ cross, Simon bore it with a glad heart and was changed by the experience, and was later known as father of two prominent Christians in Rome. Often the grace and kindness of God is shown by the kindness and service of others. God at work where we least expect: Blessed are those who witness suffering, for they are being called to help sustain those who suffer.

Kind Jesus, Simon bore your cross when your own strength had failed you. Grant us mercy and strength to bear the burdens of others, and in so doing serve as your own arms bearing up their crosses. Through your Holy Cross we pray, Amen.

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Jesus reminds the mourning women that war, suffering, and death is in store for them, and indeed, all. How can God be present in war, suffering, and death? How can God be present in crucifixion? “Remember you are mere dust, and to dust shall return” brings into sharp focus the truth about our life: it is terminal, and our lot is pain. Yet beauty also is here, goodness, and hope. God at work where we least expect, God present precisely where he appears to be absent: Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Kind Jesus, you reminded the mourning women that mourning is our lot, yet said that those who mourn are blessed. Give us courage and strength to find joy in the good things in our lives, and help us see God’s presence in his apparent absences. Through your Holy Cross we pray, Amen.

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After Jesus’ resurrection, the disciples wondered why the crucifixion had ever happened if indeed God was going to overturn it. One story they told to explain this was that when Jesus was arrested, disciples tried to defend him by force of arms. He stopped them, saying, “Put your sword back in its place, for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then can [God’s plan be fulfilled]?” (Matthew 26: 52-54) As Jesus’ hands are stretched to be nailed on the cross, this is not just suffering in senseless imposed torment. Jesus is also voluntarily reaching out to us, with a loving embrace. God at work where we least expect: Blessed is the Crucified One, for by submitting he condemns the violence of the world and redeems creation.

Kind Jesus, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace. So clothe us in your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you, for the honor and glory of your name. Through your Holy Cross we pray, Amen. (adapted, BCP p.101 )

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Human relationships—friendships, family, fellow worshippers in a faith tradition—are among the most sublime of all human experiences. Many of us, when performing a contemplative examination of where we experience God in our daily lives, find that it often is our relationships. So as Jesus is pulled away by death from his relationships with his blessed Mother and the beloved disciple, he establishes a relationship between them where they can continue to experience the presence of God. In the midst of our mourning, we find comfort and support in each other: Blessed are they who weep, for they shall laugh. Blessed are the sorrowful, for they shall find joy.

Kind Jesus, you valued friends and family but did not let these detract you from your mission. Give us grace to nurture and cherish one another, so that we all may experience you in our relationships. Through your Holy Cross we pray, Amen.

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7. JESUS DIES

“My God, my God, why have you abandoned me,” Jesus cries upon the cross just before he dies. But this is a cry of distress, not despair. Jesus is reciting Psalm 22, praying a hymn of hope despite all, that continues: “Yet you are the Holy One, [and you do not] despise … the poor.… [They] shall eat and be satisfied, and those who seek the LORD shall praise him.” God at work where we least expect: Blessed are those who feel God has abandoned them, for they will praise God all the same.

Kind Jesus, in your death we see the death of God. In your rising, we see God’s great vindication. Help us so to trust and love you that we may always see your hand in the world about us, and always be confident that all is well and all manner of thing shall be well. Through your Holy Cross we pray, Amen.

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Pilate allows Joseph of Arimathea to place the body of Jesus in a tomb out of fear of the local populace’s touchiness about Sabbath Law. Normally, executed criminals’ bodies were allowed to rot on the crosses and be eaten by scavenging birds and dogs as part of the public lesson of terror that crucifixion gave. But allowing dead bodies to thus remain exposed on a Sabbath would have been needlessly provocative and could have perhaps caused a revolt, so in Judea they were removed before Sabbath and placed in unmarked shared graves. The very legalistic respect for the Sabbath that had been a major cause of conflict between Jesus and the religious authorities thus ironically became the reason his body was allowed to be buried. God at work where we least expect: Blessed are those who have enemies, for their enemies, even despite themselves, might end up helping them.

Kind Jesus, your holy body was preserved for the glorious day of your resurrection through the kindness of a stranger and the legal arguments of your enemies. Give us understanding hearts that we may see the good intentions of others, even when we disagree, and know that all things are working for the good you seek in the world. Through your Holy Cross we pray, Amen.

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CLOSING MEDITATION

“The Lord is a God who hides himself from us” (Isaiah 45:15). Those looking upon Jesus on the cross saw only a tortured man dying. But in light of all that happened after his death, we can see a crowned King in glory upon the Cross. The cross is the great scandal and horror of faith: gods simply do not die on a cross. But this God did. God at work where we least expect: Blessed is the Holy Cross, instrument of shameful death but sign of glorious victory and hope.

Kind Jesus, you trusted in your Father, the God who hides himself from us. Mercifully open our eyes that we may see, with you, God at work in the world around us, especially where God seems most absent. Through your Holy Cross we pray, Amen.

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E. THE WAY OF CONTEMPLATIONReflection and Lectio Divina for each station

OPENING MEDITATION

The Way of the Cross is a winding, turning way. In this final week’s devotion, you may wish to begin with the prayer printed at the bottom of this page, and then unhurriedly do a lectio divina (“divine reading”) at each station:

1. Read the passage reverently and attentively, asking what the text is saying of itself. 2. Meditate on it, pondering and ruminating on what the text is saying to you, here and now. Let phrases or words jump out at you. Use thought, imagination, emotion, and desire to help you listen. 3. Pray the passage, seeking to understand what your response to God in this message should be. Prayer broadly includes thanks, petition, intercession, and praise. Listen to what this text leads you to say to God.4. Contemplate what you have read, meditated, and prayed. Listen to what God is saying to you in response: open yourself to hearing what God is asking us to think, do, and be.


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1. Jesus is Condemned, Scourged, and Mocked

He Bore our Anguish

It was not the Jews, Lord Jesus, who crucified you, Nor the traitors who dragged you to the law, Nor the contemptuous who spit in your face, Nor those who bound you, and hit you full of wounds, And it was not the soldiers who with evil handsLifted up the reed, or the hammer, Or set that cursed wood on Golgotha, Or cast lots for your robe; It is I, O Lord, it is I who have done it, I am the heavy tree that overburdened you, I am the rough hands that bound you, The nail, the spear, and the cords that whipped you, The bloodied crown that tore your head; All this happened, alas! for my sins.

(Jacobus Revius, tr. Charles D. Tate, Jr.)

Kind Jesus, fill us with your spirit and grace that we may hear your voice and walk with you on the Way of the Cross, that sorrowful way that brings us with you to the great banquet and Easter joy. Through your Holy Cross we pray, Amen.

READ ✚ MEDITATE ✚ PRAY ✚ CONTEMPLATE

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Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited,but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a Cross.Therefore God also highly exalted him

and gave him the name that is above every name…

(Philippians 2:6-11)



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3. Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry the Cross

Christ has no body but yours,No hands, no feet on earth but yours,Yours are the eyes with which he looksCompassion on this world,Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,Yours are the hands with which he blesses all the world.Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,Yours are the eyes, you are his body.Christ has no body now but yours,No hands, no feet on earth but yours,Yours are the eyes with which he lookscompassion on this world.Christ has no body now on earth but yours. (St. Teresa of Avila, 1515-82)

Kind Jesus, fill us with your spirit and grace that we may hear your voice and walk with you on the Way of the Cross, that sorrowful way that brings us with you to the great banquet and Easter joy. Through your Holy Cross we pray, Amen. READ ✚ MEDITATE ✚ PRAY ✚ CONTEMPLATE

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Catherine of Siena, a fourteenth century mystic, reports the following words spoken to her in vision by the Christ:

“Beloved daughter, everything I give to you comes from the love and care I have for [your sisters and brothers]. I desire to show my mercy to the whole world and my protective love to those who desire it. My care is constant. I did all this so that they will know me and rejoice to see me forever.”



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JESUS IS NAILED TO THE CROSS

“For in Jesus Christ all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God chose to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his Cross… God brought you to life again along with Christ, when Christ forgave us all our trespasses, erasing the court case against us with its legalities. He set all this aside, nailing it to the Cross. He thus disarmed the rulers and authorities. It was he that made a public example of them (and not vice versa) by triumphing over them in the Cross” (Colossians 1:19-21; 2:13-15).



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A Song of True MotherhoodGod chose to be our mother in all thingsand so made the foundation of his work,

most humbly and most pure, in the Virgin’s womb.God, the perfect wisdom of all,

arrayed himself in this humble place.Christ came in our poor flesh

to share a mother’s care.Our mothers bear us for pain and for death;

our true mother, Jesus, bears us for joy and endless life.Christ carried us within him in love and travail,

until the full time of his passion.And when all was completed and he had carried us so for joy,still all this could not satisfy the power of his wonderful love.

All that we owe is redeemed in truly loving God,for the love of Christ works in us;Christ is the one whom we love.

(St. Julian of Norwich)



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7. JESUS DIES

When I survey the wondrous crossOn which the Prince of glory died,My richest gain I count but loss,And pour contempt on all my pride.Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,Save in the death of Christ my God!All the vain things that charm me most,I sacrifice them to His blood.See from His head, His hands, His feet,Sorrow and love flow mingled down!Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,Or thorns compose so rich a crown?Were the whole realm of nature mine,That were a present far too small;Love so amazing, so divine,Demands my soul, my life, my all. (Isaac Watts)



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“Once the burial is accomplished, there is only an enormous silence about and around Jesus of Nazareth: no visitors to the tomb, no mourners, no public displays of grief for a fallen leader. The Roman soldiers have completed their grim duty, and the city is hushed on Passover eve. It is as if the young man who has been executed has already begun to fade into history.

“But for those who believe that the eternal God disclosed Himself finally and fully in the historical Jesus of Nazareth, the silence shows how much God loves—to the point of giving everything. The God Who dies in Jesus is He Who loves without limit or qualification. He is dead among the dead. This is the extreme point.

“But from here, human history, the course of time, the destiny of the world—the meaning of reality itself—are about to be forever altered.” (Donald Spoto, The Hidden Jesus: A New Life, p. 230)



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CLOSING MEDITATION & PRAYER

A Song of Christ’s Goodness

Jesus, as a mother you gather your people to you; you are gentle with us as a mother with her children.Often you weep over our sins and our pride, tenderly you draw us from hatred and judgment.You comfort us in sorrow and bind up our wounds, in sickness you nurse us and with pure milk you feed us.Jesus, by your dying, we are born to new life; by your anguish and labor we come forth in joy.Despair turns to hope through your sweet goodness; through your gentleness, we find comfort in fear.Your warmth gives life to the dead, your touch makes sinners righteous.

Kind Jesus, in your mercy, heal us; in your love and tenderness, remake us.In your compassion, bring grace and forgiveness, for the beauty of heaven, may your love prepare us.[Through your Holy Cross we pray, Amen.]

(Anselm of Canterbury)

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Documents

€¦ · Web viewcommemorating our Lord’s sufferings has long been a Christian devotion, and was part of the Holy Week liturgy in Jerusalem from the mid-fourth century on. The