Way of the Cross 3
March 13, 2009
Jesus is Stripped of His Clothes
Reflection
Jesus arrives at Golgotha. The soldiers take away the cross-beam from his shoulders and neck. Jesus is relieved from this weight. He stands there motionless. Everyone around him is doing his business. He just waits. They move around.
Jesus looks up and sees the two thieves already in their place. They are screaming with pain. He looks down again and, keeping his eyes fixed to the ground, awaits his turn. Suddenly the soldiers came. He knew it was his time.
They take off his clothes and throw them in a heap nearby. Jesus is again humiliated. He stands there almost naked and empty handed. The bloodstained body shows the bruises and the open wounds of the lashes. He starts shivering as the northerly breeze chills his sweating body.
They place the cross-beam on the ground in front of him, and the soldiers begin discussing what to do with his garments: “Let’s not tear it,” they say to one another. “Let’s decide by lot who will get it.” (Jn 19,24) In this way they fulfill what was written in the scriptures, “They divided my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing”(Ps 22,18).
Jesus then lifts up his eyes to heaven completes the prayer: “But you, O Lord, be not far off! O my Strength, come quickly to help me!” (Ps 22,19).
Prayer
Dear Jesus, what a shameful spectacle they wanted to make of you! Some hours earlier during that same week, dear Lord, you yourself took off your cloak to wash the feet of your disciples. You told us then that we have to do the same as you were doing!
And now Lord, you left them undress you of your clothes, undress you of your dignity as a human being! You refuse to grasp and clutch. You stand wounded, broken and empty handed.
How could you bear all this, Lord? Lord, teach me how to do my utmost to serve the poor, the humble, the homeless, the less fortunate. Help me never to be a cause of any injustice against human dignity. Help me to live empty handed.
Lord, how can I not bring in front of your suffering heart the multitude of human beings who are held as slaves to day, who are left to die of hunger while we pile up rubbish dumps all over, the innocent children who are suffering because of the waring adults. Lord look at our misery and help us never to be a cause of misery to others!
Way of the Cross 2
March 6, 2009
Station 2: Jesus Accepts His Cross
Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor’s headquarters, and they gathered the whole cohort around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and after twisting some thorns into a crown, they put it on his head. They put a reed in his right hand and knelt before him and mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” They spat on him, and took the reed and struck him on the head. After mocking him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him. (Matthew 27:27-31)
Jesus, I cringe at the pain of the thorns. But I am wounded far more deeply at the humiliation and degradation you suffer, that the very thing you came to offer us as a gift becomes a source of ridicule. The crowds thought of a King in terms of power. But you came to be the kind of King who shepherds his people, who takes responsibility for their well being, whose principles are faithfulness, justice, and righteousness (Isa 11:3-4). And yet, the people are not ready for that kind of King.
I would like to think that I am ready to follow you who offer a Kingdom of peace and love for one another. But am I? Am I willing to yield my ideas of what the Kingdom should look like for the role of a servant? Am I really so willing to give up my human preoccupation with power and control and accept a different kind of crown than I was expecting?
I see you accept the Cross in the midst of such mockery. You could have refused. What more could they have done to you? Yet you begin this journey, knowing full well where it will lead. I hear no words of complaint, no protestations of innocence, no cursing the injustice. And yet I am so prone to complain and whine about the most trivial things. Sometimes the things I face in my life are more than trivial. Sometimes the troubles of life bear down on me. But I so easily fall into self-pity. I too often assume that I am the only one who bears a cross, or that my cross is larger and heavier than any others.
But I am not alone in that. People all around me bear far more than I must bear. You accepted your cross without self-pity. O Lord, forgive me for forgetting that in my weakness I am driven to trust on you, and that in that trust my weakness becomes your strength. Forgive my attitudes of self-pity that make me more repulsive than loving. I do not ask for crosses to bear. But when they come, give me the strength to bear them as one who follows your example.
*This post is taken from one of my Old Testament Professors, Dennis Bratcher.
Way of the Cross 1
February 27, 2009
On Friday’s from now until Easter Sunday we will accompany Jesus from the Hall of Pilate, where Jesus is condemned to death, to Golgotha (Calvary) where he was executed.
Station #1 Pilate Condemns Jesus to Die
Now Jesus stood before the governor; and the governor asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus said, “You say so.” But when he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he did not answer. Then Pilate said to him, “Do you not hear how many accusations they make against you?” But he gave him no answer, not even to a single charge, so that the governor was greatly amazed. . . . So when Pilate saw that he could do nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took some water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.” . . . and after flogging Jesus, he handed him over to be crucified. (Matt 27:11-14, 24, 26b)
Jesus, I wish you would say something. Defend yourself. Declare who you are. Where are the lepers you healed, the blind who can now see? Why don’t those who were lame stand up for you now? Where are your followers? Why are you standing there alone?
Why is Pilate such a coward. He has the power and authority to do something, to put an end to this cruel injustice. Why doesn’t he? What is wrong with him? What is he thinking?
But wait, I see in Pilate me.
I am Pilate when I fail to use my strength and power to help the innocent and the weak.
I am Pilate when I fear the crowd and choose what is easy rather than what is right.
I am Pilate when I seek to save myself rather than suffer for the sake of others.
What is wrong with me?
Jesus I see in you a quiet strength and a humble resolve I long for myself. O Lord, I want to be like you. Free me from the need to defend myself, while giving me a voice to speak up for those who suffer.
The Year of Living Rhythmically: #1
February 25, 2009
Today is Ash Wednesday the beginning of the Lenten season where we carefully begin to review our lives in relationship to God for the sake of growing in repentance.
We frequently discuss the concept of Sacred Rhythm in these pages. Our focus is almost always upon the idea of Sacred Rhythm as it relates to our daily practices of prayer. But this sacred rhythm also applies to the seasons of the year. Through Christ’s resurrection we can now redeem time.
This redemption of time, which we see take place through various sacred rhythms, is bluntly expressed on a day like today. Smudging ash on our foreheads in the shape of the cross and quietly reminding one another: From dust you have come and to dust you shall return.
We are frail and fruitless. Any life we have is what we receive from God. Whatever good we do in this world is a ricochet of God’s grace bouncing off of us only to bless others.
A year of living rhythmically includes observing, as most Christians have done for centuries, the seasons of the Christian year: Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter and Pentecost. Each season either anticipates Christ’s coming or dramatically relives a part of Christ’s life. Christmas, Pentecost and Easter are seasons of celebration. Lent is a season of repentance, reflection and fasting. A season of intentional sadness.
Christians are naturally buoyant. This maybe why Lent has been prescribed as a corporate discipline throughout the ages. We love the resurrection too much. Though a season of sadness it is not a sadness without hope. It is a sadness of preparation. After our season of sadness comes our greatest season of joy…
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