The Way of the Cross 4
March 21, 2009
Jesus is nailed to the Cross
The soldiers grab Jesus and lead him to the cross-beam on the ground. They almost push him down. He offers no resistance. He is forced to lie down face up. They stretch his arms. In an instant, too many things happen. The banging of hammers on the nails, the piercing pain of sharp metal entering the flesh, the echo of the wooden beam, his painful scream.
He screamed aloud to relieve the pain. His voice echoed to the furthest corners of the city.
With each hammer blow, the metal tore into the flesh at his wrists, broke the arteries and fractured the bones. It was unbearable. He was almost senseless and the sunbeams were blinding him.
He had lost count of the hammer blows, of the orders yelled next to his ears, of the different voices talking or screaming. He could not follow the sequence of events any longer.
His feeble body was contorted with pain. Blood was dripping from his pierced wrists. He closed his eyes. He could not take it anymore; he almost lost his senses.
On the sides there where those who had come to see this “spectacle”. They stood there motionless and impassive. But there were also a few women sobbing quietly in a corner.
All was set. The body was nailed. The chords had been brought down from the wooden beams prepared to take the crucified body. And Jesus was now nailed to the Cross.
Prayer
Dear Jesus, I cannot stand the pain you are suffering for me! I cannot bear to remember what you had to go through for my salvation! If I pierce my finger with a needle I scream! And you? A nail went through your wrists tearing into your flesh! How can we ever understand your suffering, Lord? And still with dignity you suffered through all of it!
Lord, help me to never inflict pain on others and above all, Lord, help me put all my faith and hope in you! Visualizing your nailing to the cross, Lord, makes me realize how futile it is to put my hope in anyone except you. You know, Lord, how many times I got carried away thinking that someone or something might have been more important than you. You know too, that whenever this happened, many times I lived to regret it! Dear Jesus, I do need my faith in you!
*Thanks to via crucis for their content
Comments
1 Comment to “The Way of the Cross 4”
Got something to say?
-
Subscribe To MO
Jamie,
Thanks for continuing with this series.
The way of the cross, I am learning is the way of life for many in this world who love Jesus. Some are forced into it. Some choose to carry their crosses daily with faith, hope, and love. Some “stumble” into it. No matter, what he inspires and enables us to endure for his sake is beyond us yet we are able to endure because he endured with honor, never wavering in his love. May we endure to the very end and be found faithful!