We continue with our journey with Jesus to the hill of Calvary with the next two Stations of the Cross.
The Seventh Station
JESUS FALLS THE SECOND TIME
Jesus fell once. It was from weakness and pain but it was for something or someone.
He fell the first time for those who set the murderous wheels of his passion and death in motion, Pilate and his emperor, the chief priests and religious leaders calling for his death, those blinded by power and their weakness. He showed them the power of weakness when that power and weakness are called love.
This second time he fell it was for those who followed and watched, sometimes at a distance as passive bystanders and sometimes as the crowd jeered his and called for his death. They were caught in spiritual paralysis and guilt and blindness to suffering and death. He fell that they might run to their merciful God.
He fell a second time and he got up again and stumbled forward to his death and our freedom.
The Eighth Station
JESUS MEETS THE WOMEN OF JERUSALEM
In Luke 23:28 Jesus says to these women along his path "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children."
Jesus predicts a harsh future that his people will have because of their rejection of God's works of mercy and grace. Jerusalem will ultimately fall to the Romans, the temple again destroyed and God's people once again dispersed. When sorrows and pain touch our lives we must remember that redemption and joy are our destiny, when we weep for the crucified one and rejoice in the risen Lord.
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