Friday, the Third Week of Lent

Seventh Station of the Cross – Jesus falls the second time

   Have you ever fallen on pavement and scraped yourself badly?  If so you know that anytime anything comes into contact with such a wound it reopens it.  Maybe it starts to bleed again, but the pain alone is as bad and maybe worse than the initial injury.

   Now try to feel what that pain would be if you had been beaten by a seven or nine tailed scourge such as the Romans used.  Embedded in each of the tails were bits of metal, bone and rock to ensure that the flesh was torn, ripped and flayed away.  This is the scourging of Jesus.

   Have you ever reached into a rose bush and grabbed a thorn rather than a rose?  Now imagine a thorn several times that size in a branch woven into a crown pushed onto your head until the thorns tore and penetrated your flesh.  This was the crowning of thorns Jesus endured.

   Every inch of His body was in excruciating pain as He carried the cross through the streets of Jerusalem.  I can’t begin to comprehend the pain He must have felt throughout His body when He fell this second time.  Every wound would have reopened and filled with dirt and gravel.  Quite likely the Roman soldiers began beating Him again, screaming at Him to get up.

   I’ve been graphic in my depictions of Jesus’ agony for a purpose.  When we look at the crucifix we see Jesus portrayed nailed to the cross but never truly depicted is the physical horror that He had endured just getting to the cross.  His body would have been a mass of bloody, torn flesh from head to toe.  He would have been virtually unrecognizable even to those who Him well.

   I believe we need to fully look upon the pain and suffering He endured in order to truly appreciate what He did for us.  We must see the beaten, bloody body of our Lord and accept that it was for our sins that He suffered.  Maybe then we can more willingly and lovingly accept whatever sacrifice and suffering comes our way and offer it to Jesus for the great gift of our salvation.