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| Image by See-ming Lee |
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Station #17: the Passion of Jesus
The Stations of the Cross 1-12: Jesus is condemned to death; Jesus is made to bear his cross, Jesus falls the first time, Jesus meets his mother, Simon of Cyrene is made to bear the cross, Veronica wipes Jesus’ face, he falls the second time, the women of Jerusalem weep over Jesus, he falls the third time, he is stripped of his garments, Jesus is nailed to the cross, Jesus dies on the cross.
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A GREETING
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer;
and by night, but find no rest.
(Psalm 22:1-2)
A READING
From noon on, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And about three o’clock Jesus cried with a loud voice, ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, ‘This man is calling for Elijah.’ At once one of them ran and got a sponge, filled it with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink. But the others said, ‘Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.’ Then Jesus cried again with a loud voice and breathed his last. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. After his resurrection they came out of the tombs and entered the holy city and appeared to many. Now when the centurion and those with him, who were keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were terrified and said, ‘Truly this man was God’s Son!’ Many women were also there, looking on from a distance; they had followed Jesus from Galilee and had provided for him. Among them were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.
(Matthew 26:45-56)
MUSIC
A MEDITATIVE VERSE
Do not be far from me, for trouble is near
and there is no one to help.
(Psalm 22:11)
A PRAYER
Out of the bud of the wood of the Cross
wherefore hearts' love embraces
whence out of extended arms
You lovingly take us.
- from the prayer of St. Francis Xavier
found on briarcroft
VERSE OF THE DAY
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,
his mercies never come to an end
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul,
‘therefore I will hope in him.’
(Lamentations 3:22-24)
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| "The Way of the Cross," by Sieger Koder |
We now reach the place where our stations before the Cross meet the traditional Stations of the Cross as Jesus is crucified. The guttural cry of Jesus to God as he dies, is his last expression of agony and agitation, of being troubled in the body and the spirit and the mind. All the stalling of the last week: the hesitations before Bethany, the retreat to Ephraim, the hiding after entering Jerusalem, all of it is here drawn up in one last wail to God. The human Jesus has endured every kind of suffering of the body and also of the heart and psyche. All the deaths that we can imagine or hear about — rest in this one unimaginable death.
So what does it mean to us, now, in April of 2023? How does the extraordinary pain and suffering of Jesus, which is equal to all of the suffering of the world — speak to us? We refer to this day's events as the "passion" of Jesus. "Passion," is part of "compassion," "to suffer with." In this day, we suffer with Jesus as Jesus suffers with and for us. Where would we place our own everyday struggles and pain in this scene? Is Jesus holding our sufferings between his third and fourth ribs? Is he keeping it in the wounds in his feet? Is it deep within his anguished cry? And how, in turn, are we helping to carry the Cross, like Simon of Cyrene, in our own compassion for the world?
In our own lives, we might think of Crucifixion as the absence or intentional breaking of love. How much do we crucify each other a little (or a lot) each day, with our own selfish abnegation of the needs of others? The anguished cry from the cross, that moment of submission to death, holds all of our broken love, our sinfulness, our wandering from an accountability in love, our wandering from the resting of our love in God’s love for us.
To break love over and over and over, is to lose the world. God doesn’t want to lose us, or each other, or the world. So God gives God’s only Son, so that we can see ourselves in the broken body and spirit of the human Jesus; so that we can confront our sinfulness, our brokenness in relationships with each other and with God. When we intentionally break love, when we betray each other, when we are cruel or take each other for granted, we become the nails and the wood. When human beings commit hate crimes: when we kill people at worship in holy times of the year, when we bury children in unmarked graves, when we bomb each other’s cities, when we intentionally kill all of the bison in a region for a perceived momentary gain, we are the wood and nails, pounding over and over again. We come close to losing the world. The only way out, is to focus on the Cross.
"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" The good news is that God and Jesus haven’t forsaken us. But the only way to that part of the story is through this moment, with its self-reckonings and repentance and commitment to new life. How much are we willing to really dwell in this scene, in order that we might also rebuild the world?
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| Image by Nebojsa Mladjenovic |
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LC† Before the Cross is a project of Lutherans Connect, supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Centre for Spirituality and Media at Martin Luther University College. To receive the devotions by email, write to lutheransconnect@gmail.com. The devotional pages are written and curated by Deacon Sherry Coman, with support and input from Pastor Steve Hoffard, Catherine Evenden and Henriette Thompson. Join us on Facebook, and on Twitter. Lutherans Connect invites you to make a donation to the Ministry by going to this link on the website of the ELCIC Eastern Synod and selecting "Lutherans Connect Devotionals" under "Fund". Devotions are always freely offered, however your donations help to support extended offerings throughout the year. Thank you and peace be with you!
