The Stations of the Cross – March 26, 2021

The Stations of the Cross are basically an extended meditation on the Passion of Jesus (his trial, suffering, death and burial).  They are especially associated with Lent because that’s the season in which, through special acts of prayer, self-denial, and service, we enter into Jesus’ Passion, so that at Easter we can also enter in a special way into Jesus’ resurrection.  We suffer with him, we bring our suffering and the suffering of others to him in his Passion, so that suffering can be transformed just as his suffering was transformed in his resurrection.
That last sentence really gets at what so powerful in the Stations of the Cross.  Through praying the Stations I begin to learn what it means to suffer with Christ, what it means to suffer as a suffering servant, what it means to give over to Christ all the suffering and hurt and crud that I am carrying for myself and for others.  The Stations challenge me to understand and to bear my suffering and the suffering of the world in light of that singularly most important moment in the history of the universe: the moment in which Jesus carried all the suffering and hurt and crud of the world straight into the tomb and, as the conqueror of sin and death, left it there.  And because he is the conqueror who has left it there, I too can leave it there.  By the grace of God and the power of the Spirit, I too can be more than a conqueror over the suffering and hurt and crud in my life.  Not a conqueror in the sense that I will ever be immune or impervious to my suffering or the sufferings of others.  Rather, with Christ I can be a conqueror in that no matter the suffering I encounter, I can know that suffering will never have the final word in my life.  Christ will always be there to redeem, to give meaning and purpose to that suffering.
It is far better to pray the Stations than to talk about them; it is far better to come face-to-face with Christ the Suffering Servant Lamb of God than merely to think about him.  So I heartily invite you all to give the Stations a test-drive.  I don’t think that you’ll be disappointed.