by Melody Harrison Hanson
The origin of the “Stations of the Cross” grew out of an ancient liturgy and describes fourteen experiences of Jesus, along the way to Golgotha where he was crucified. These follow Jesus from the minute he is condemned to death until his entombment and on to his resurrection. Traditionally, the faithful prayed the liturgy alongside visual depictions of each station, an opportunity to contemplate each experience of Jesus slowly and thoughtfully.
The Christian life is often described as a road walked with Jesus, ever cognizant of the suffering that surrounds us every day. If we were able to walk with him through those days and hours, two thousand years ago, even the moments before his death, how might that change us?
Someone once said that much of the spiritual journey is being stripped of all that we tend to put our trust in. Life is found in losing it for Christ’s sake; life itself and that which God has prepared for each of us, if received fully, deeply, viscerally, into our dna, will teach us what it mean to walk with Jesus today.
The object of the Stations historically is to help the faithful to make a spiritual pilgrimage of prayer, through meditating on the chief scenes of Christ’s sufferings and death. You are invited to walk the stations which lead to Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday.
The Bible says that there is no human pain or joy that Jesus has not taken on to himself when he lived and died two thousand years ago in Palestine. From the Garden of Gethsemane to the Cross he died on. Because of his sacrifice, we are able to see the world differently and experience the highs of love and joy, as well as the lows of suffering and sorrow. This is in and through Jesus.
As Henri Nouwen said: “Jesus died and rose for all people with all their differences, so that all could be lifted up with him into the splendor of God. There is immense pain in the wide world around us and there is immense pain in the small world within us. But all pain belongs to Jesus.”
Walking these stations is an opportunity to pause, set aside the distractions of life, in order to listen and remember Jesus of Nazareth. What we suffer, he suffered. Experience the redemption and good news.
God whispers to us in our pleasures,
speaks to us in our conscience,
but shouts in our pains;
it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.
-C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain
Read more about the Stations on Wikipedia.