Here are the next three stations of the cross. I hope they are helping add more challenge and depth to your week leading up to Easter!
Station Seven: Jesus Falls Second Time
Isaiah 53:4-9
Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By a perversion of justice he was taken away. Who could have imagined his future? For he was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people. They made his grave with the wicked and his tomb with the rich, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.
Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, our Teacher on the Way, I hate these falling stations. They embarrass me. It is hard for me to admit when and where I have fallen. I want so much to nuance it. Make it look like something it is not. Blame it on someone else. But as I watch you fall, weakened from the beatings, the loss of blood, the loss of water, the loss of food, the betrayals of your friends, I see that there is something in you that is still strong: your commitment to God, your sense of yourself, your understanding of why you are here, your commitment to complete the journey that is yours to make. In you I see that there is no shame in falling because that is the way the learning comes. In you I see that falling is not the same thing as being a failure. As we walk this path together, teach me how to get up again with dignity and continue in your way. Silence.
Lord, in your mercy...hear our prayer.
Station Eight: Jesus Meets Women of Jerusalem
Lamentations 1: 12-16
Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which was brought upon me, which the Lord inflicted on the day of his fierce anger.
From on high he sent fire; it went deep into my bones; he spread a net for my feet; he turned me back; he has left me stunned, faint all day long. My transgressions were bound into a yoke; by his hand they were fastened together; they weigh on my neck, sapping my strength; the Lord handed me over to those whom I cannot withstand. The Lord has rejected all my warriors in the midst of me; he proclaimed a time against me to crush my young men; the Lord has trodden as in a wine press... the virgin daughter Judah. For these things I weep; my eyes flow with tears; for a comforter is far from me, one to revive my courage; my children are desolate, for the enemy has prevailed.
Luke 23:27-28
A great number of the people followed him, and among them were women who were 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.”
Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, our Teacher on the Way, teach us how to grieve. We do not know how to grieve and what to grieve for. Like the women of Jerusalem, our grieving is full of melodrama and it usually misses the point. True grief, the kind that comes from seeing and grasping our true situation, is so deep it can hardly be spoken. It can only be endured. Lord Jesus Christ, our brother and our friend, our journey with you must be one of true sorrow and true conversion. As we walk this path together, lead me beyond the melodrama of public weeping and wailing into that godly grief that keeps me in touch with my humanness and leads to true repentance. Let me know the comfort promised to those who truly mourn. Silence.
Lord, in your mercy...hear our prayer.
Station Nine: Jesus Falls Third Time
Psalm 26:1-3
Vindicate me, O Lord, for I have walked in my integrity, and I have trusted in the Lord without wavering. Prove me, O Lord, and try me; test my heart and mind. For your steadfast love is before my eyes, and I walk in faithfulness to you.
Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, our Teacher on the Way. I am frustrated with the falling. I kept hoping that last time would be the last time but it is not. I keep wishing that at some point on the journey I could be certain that we can transcend our own human frailty, never to fall again. Perhaps I am finally getting it: falling and getting up again is and always will be a part of the journey until we are finally home. Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for not giving in to despair when the road got so hard. Thank you for getting up again each and every time you fell. As we walk this path together, grant me the perseverance and the humility to continue falling and rising until I am safely home. Silence.
Lord, in your mercy...hear our prayer.