STATION 11: JESUS IS NAILED TO THE CROSS

The people passing by shouted abuse, shaking their heads in mockery. “Look at you now!” they yelled at him. “You said you were going to destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days. Well then, if you are the Son of God, save yourself and come down from the cross!”
— Matthew 27:39-40 (New Living Translation)

Station 11

On most days, in order to get to station 11 in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, you must struggle through the crowds heading up a steep set of stone stairs to the second floor of the church. There pilgrims form uneven, jostling, constantly moving lines to have the chance to kneel down under the altar you see in the picture.

In the middle of the floor under the altar is a hole. Tradition says that this altar was built over the stone hill where Jesus was crucified. If you place your hand down through that hole, you will touch cool stone, worn smooth by the touch of millions of pilgrims.

We do not know, of course, if this was the exact location of Jesus’ crucifixion, but we know that it was somewhere near. But it could have been here. Regardless of its location, what that stone represents is powerful. For that reason, as you bend your knees to crouch down underneath the table-high altar, as you bow your head and awkwardly crawl underneath in humility, as you reach down to touch the stone, it can be a moment of profound beauty.

It can be an experience of deep gratitude.

Let us pray.

Gracious God,

It is hard for us to comprehend the depth of love that would be necessary for you to endure all this for us. We do not feel worthy of your pain. We do not feel worthy of your sacrifice. We are imperfect, flawed, broken. Our lives are filled with mistakes, failures, missed opportunities, squandered gifts. How could you be willing to go to the cross for the very humanity that sent you to die in such a terrible manner?

We cannot comprehend this.

And, yet, we do not need to comprehend it. Perhaps we need only to accept it.

Help us to accept that you looked at your creation, imperfect, flawed, and broken, and saw something worth redeeming. Help us to accept that your love is so great and so deep and so wide, that it has encompassed all of our mistakes, all of our failures, all our sins, and has forgiven them all. Help us to accept that your grace is so powerful, that you went willingly to the cross so that we might — finally — understand just how far you would go to save us… you would go all the way.

Help us to accept this gift of love.

We finish this station by praying in silence, that you would open our spirits to you this day.