Good Friday—Stations of the Cross Meditations
- Jesus is condemned to death
During our Lord’s trial before the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, three times Pilate declares Jesus innocent, that He had committed no crime, certainly at least one that was worthy of crucifixion. But what do the Jews’ say was Jesus’ crime? We have a law, and according to that law He ought to die because He has made Himself the Son of God. What is fascinating is that the Jews do not say that there is no Son of God—they don’t deny a Trinity—but what they say is worthy of death is that Jesus made Himself the Son of God. In the scene before us we have the holy, sinless Son of God being condemned to death precisely because He is who He says He is: the Son of God. We again see what we have seen so often during Jesus’ earthly ministry and throughout all of history: Jesus is the great divide. A person is either for Him or against Him. Am I giving Jesus my undivided love, devotion, faith?
- Jesus carries His cross
This scene of Jesus carrying His cross is a perfect image of His saving work. There He is—the holy, sinless Son of God loaded down with the sins of the world that He took on Himself to suffer and die for. This is the image that was prophesied by the OT prophet St. Isaiah [53.6]: The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Here, by carrying His cross, Jesus is marked for one and all to see as the greatest sinner—even though He never once sinned—for only the worst of the worst were crucified. St. Paul put it this way [2 Cor. 5.21]: For [God] made [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin for us. Here is Jesus marked for all to see as the world’s sinner. And yet this is a burden that Jesus willingly takes on Himself. He does so because of His love for us so that He might save us from our sin. Do I rightly recognize my sin and give them to Jesus in sincere repentance?
- Jesus falls the first time
Holy Scripture doesn’t mention Jesus stumbling or falling as He carries His cross to Golgotha, but it is something that very likely happened. After all, think how weakened Jesus was at this point and how much blood He had shed. He had been up all night. He had suffered great anguish in Gethsemane. He had been whipped in the most brutal fashion so that He was a walking wound. His sacred head had been pierced with the thorns. And now on top of that He has to carry the heavy wood of the cross. To say the least, as the Passion history makes clear, Jesus knew true suffering—emotional, physical and spiritual. He was no stranger to it.
There is a vital lesson for us here in our sufferings. We need to remember that God will not take suffering away from us. In this sin scarred world, we will suffer. But as we see Jesus here stumbling and suffering, let us see Him enter into our sufferings with us. Our sufferings are not meaningless but with Jesus with us, He sanctifies our sufferings. Do we see Jesus with us in our sufferings?
- Jesus meets His mother
Again, this is an event that the Scriptures do not record but it certainly is not out of the realm of possibility, after all, St. Mary is at the foot of the cross. In either case, we remember the blessed role that St. Mary. She is Jesus’ mother; she is the mother of God. At the time of the Annunciation, the angel Gabriel came and greeted Mary [Lk. 1.26]: Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women. Mary, who was shown such great grace and blessing, was not spared great agony. In fact, St. Simeon prophesied of her 40 days after Jesus’ birth that a sword will pierce through your own soul also. And here it was as she saw Jesus crucified. But her coming to Jesus, and being with Him was certainly a comfort to Jesus and a sign of God’s love and mercy to Him. Let us examine our own lives for
these signs of God’s love and mercy in our times of suffering.
- Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry His cross
It is interesting how St. Luke phrases this account: they seized one Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country. The soldiers forced him to carry Jesus’ cross. It certainly wasn’t because they were so kind and compassionate. There was a more sinister motive—seeing Jesus’ great agony they didn’t want Him to die before being crucified. Simon is an unwilling participant. He comes into the city minding his own business when this happens. Something similar happened to us at our conversion–be it as an infant in holy baptism or later in life. Through His word, Jesus comes to us with His cross. We are going one direction—away from our Lord and serving self. But the Holy Spirit comes to us and converts us, makes us who are unwilling, willing. In conversion we hear Jesus telling us [Mt. 11.28-29]: Take My yoke upon you…I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden light. Have I taken my Lord’s light burden upon me?
- Veronica wipes the face of Jesus
The account of Veronica wiping the face of Jesus and her cloth receiving the image of Jesus’ face is not in Scripture but it does serve us well because it directs our attention to Jesus’ face. We do the same thing in our hymn O Sacred Head Now Wounded. What do we see as we look at the face of Jesus going to the place of crucifixion? We see the face of God. When we see Jesus, we see God because Jesus is God—the Son, the 2nd Person of the Holy Trinity—who became also true man. Because of Christmas/ Incarnation, if we want to see God we look at Jesus. And what do we see? We see nothing but pure love and mercy. So much so that the holy God Himself would come into this world of sin and suffer so horribly to save us from sin, death, devil, hell? What do you see as you look into Jesus’ face?
- Jesus falls the second time
It is a long road that Jesus had to travel—perhaps not so much in terms of distance but made unbearably long because of the pain and suffering. Yes, the weight of the cross had been taken off Jesus but He was still in agony and weak and certainly stumbled and fell as He was mercilessly moved along by the soldiers. But remember—even though the physical weight of the cross was now being borne by Simon, Jesus was still marked as the world’s sinner and burdened with the sins of the world. And what was Jesus doing? He was still marching off to the place where He would suffer and die for the sins of the world. What do we see here with Jesus? His resolve! His determination to bring about the salvation of the world! Yes, each step was an agonizing step leading to what He knew to be the greatest suffering—to be forsaken by God on the cross and so pay the price for the sins of the world. And yet He did it. Can we thank Him enough?
- Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem who weep for Him
Here is a very fascinating scene. We read of a great multitude of the people and of the women who were mourning and lamenting for Him. Here was a group of people, in fact, a great multitude that actually felt sorry for Him and had pity on Him. Not all had rejected Him. To be sure, some was just the natural pity that people feel for someone suffering so greatly; but some was certainly true love and sorrow for Jesus. But what does Jesus do? He has pity on them instead. As true God, He knows what will happen in a mere 40 years—that Jerusalem would be destroyed by the Romans and there would be great suffering. But even though He has pity on them and warns them, the judgment will still come on Jerusalem. In love Jesus warns, but He does not remove that judgment for sin. The warning for us is clear: we must take sin seriously. Do I take my sin seriously and repent of it?
- Jesus falls the third time
Although Jesus is true God and although He was strengthened in Gethsemane by the angel so that He could suffer and endure all throughout these horrible events of Good Friday and then lay down His life, even at the very end crying out in a loud voice [Lk. 23.46]: Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit, still the fact remains that Jesus was weakened and we reflect on that weakness with Jesus’ stumbling and falling for the third time. We are weak. We get tired. We stumble and fall. Here we remember that Jesus is like us in every way—even weakness—because He truly is one of us! He shared into our weakness. Ultimately this weakness—both ours and Jesus’—points to death. So when we reflect on that definite certainty that Jesus stumbled and fell, we are getting prepared for Jesus’ ultimate stumbling and falling—His death. But notice, for Jesus to stumble and fall but finally to make it to Golgotha means He got up again. So even His falling preaches His resurrection, as He gets up. Do I remind myself of my death and resurrection?
- Jesus is stripped of His garments
Even this seemingly insignificant act was already prophesied in the OT—lest we stumble over Jesus’ humiliation and shame. Here Jesus is stripped of any last vestige of dignity—certainly as man and how much more so as the Son of God? But this He endures as part of His work to save us from our spiritual enemies of sin, death, devil and hell. When Jesus is stripped of His last earthly possession, He still has everything. The only thing that is left is the love of God—His for the Father and the Father for Him. When all is said and done, all that is necessary for us is love—our love of God and His love for us. Luther put it this way in they hymn: And take they our life, Goods, fame, child, and wife, Let these all be gone, They yet have nothing won; the Kingdom ours remaineth. Do I believe it?
- Jesus is nailed to the cross
As we can see on our banner, the cross is on the ground and Jesus is “measured up” for His instrument of torture and death. He is placed on it so He is lined up in the right spots where He can be nailed to the cross. But as we think on this a second, we see that Jesus, being true man, was a definite height; His arms a definite length. And that’s what “was measured” so Jesus could be nailed in the right places. But what is also vital is something that is not/ cannot be measured. They couldn’t measure Jesus’ love for us. They couldn’t measure what lengths and depths He would go to save us, His creation, from sin, death and hell. It’s that love that we ponder today. It’s a love that is unfathomable.
Do we think about what we sing in the Lenten hymn [143, 4, 5]: What punishment so strange is suffered yonder! The Shepherd dies for sheep that loved to wander; The Master pays the debt His servants owe Him, Who would not know Him. The sinless Son of God must die in sadness; The sinful child of man may live in gladness?
- Jesus dies on the cross
What a magnificent word we hear Jesus speak from the cross: It is finished. It is finished and it stays finished, nothing more can be added to it. What is the “it”? It is the work for our salvation. Jesus did everything in order to reconcile us sinners to the holy God and to rescue us from the devil and hell. We are forgiven our sins. Heaven stands open to us. Jesus did all this for by living for us that holy life, obeying God’s law, never once sinning; He did it by taking our sins on Him to the cross where He endured all of God’s righteous wrath and anger over the sins of the world. Nothing more can be done or added to Jesus’ work. Because Jesus finished His saving work on the cross, He could lay down His life, bow His head and give up His spirit, entrusting it to the Father until Easter Sunday.
Is all my hope in Jesus’ death?
- Jesus is taken down from the cross
Again, a necessary event but one full of rich theological significance. Jesus was nailed to the cross and His body had to be taken down from it. St. Luke puts it this way [St. Lk. 23.53]: Then [Joseph of Arimathea] took [Jesus’ body] down. But think of the scene: This respected member of the council comes and somehow is able to free Jesus’ hands and feet from the nails. Then He has to hold/ carry the body off and away from the cross. Even if he had a number of helpers, it would be unavoidable for him to be full of Jesus’ blood. Here is a glorious picture/ description of a Christian. Like Joseph was literally, we are covered spiritually with Jesus’ blood. And as the apostle tells us [1 Jn 1.7]: The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. And then there is the image of Joseph holding Jesus’ body, getting Him off the cross. Isn’t that a glorious image of what faith does? –It clings to Jesus. Let us see in Joseph’s brave and loving act a picture of the Christian. Do I hold to cling to Christ crucified alone?
- Jesus is placed in the tomb
Now we come to that most unavoidable place of finality—the tomb. Death/ the grave has met all people. None can avoid it. Even Jesus truly died. That’s what His tomb preaches to us. Jesus, true man, went through every phase of human existence—from the earliest moment of life in the womb all the way to the grave. But for Jesus, His tomb was not a place of finality. It was a temporary place where His body rested for 3 days while His soul was in heaven. But His body did not decay. What Jesus did by resting in the tomb those 3 days was to sanctify our tombs. Now our graves are places where our bodies will rest—and yes, decay—while our soul, dear Christian, is in heaven. But come the Last Day our bodies will be raised and reunited with our souls for an eternity in heaven.