Jesus Falls
Today’s collect
mentions walking the way of the cross.
In our Book of Occasional Services, there is a devotion called the Way
of the Cross. It is the Episcopal
version of what is often called the Stations of the Cross. Growing up, I thought only Roman Catholics
did the Stations of the Cross, but it actually a widely used devotion.
It began on the
streets of Jerusalem as early as the fourth century, as Christian pilgrims
sought to trace the path of Jesus as he walked towards Golgotha. Faithful Christians prayed at stations
along that journey, seeking to mark the actual spots where Biblical events took
place
The actual
locations of those events have been subject to considerable scholarly and
church politics debates. Over the
centuries, the number of stations also varied widely. By the early 1700’s the number and identity of the stations
had been fixed at 14. As you know,
many churches have pictorial representations of the stations on the walls to
aid in the devotion. (For it to
work, though, you really need side aisles, which we don’t have. Otherwise, I’m sure Bishop Montgomery
would have installed stations here.)
Of the 14
stations, 6 have absolutely no source in Scripture. Their source is purely pious legend. Our devotion indicates that we can omit
those three if we wish. But
perhaps they have something to teach us.
They have met a need for faithful Christians for centuries.
Of the six
stations which describe events that are not mentioned in Scripture, three of
the six describe Jesus falling.
Jesus stumbling and falling along the way.
To this day,
there is considerable variation in the prayers or meditations associated with
each of the stations. Several
Roman Catholic versions I found online link Jesus falling with the weight of
our sins. It is the burden of
carrying our sins that bears down upon him and causes him to stumble.
Alternatively,
in the prayers associated with these stations in our tradition, the emphasis is
on Jesus’ humanity. Jesus has
willingly taken on human weakness and frailty. Because he is fully human, he stumbles as he struggles along
a very difficult journey.
It is because Jesus
is like us that we may hope to be like him.
These stations
illustrate the holiness of stumbling.
If the holy one stumbles, then our weak stumbling may be holy, too. They show Jesus humility in fully
taking on human being, so that we who are human may come to take on him
divinity.
Because Jesus is
like us, even in our frailty and weakness, we may hope to be like him. The Jesus who stumbles and falls is the
Jesus who dies on the cross. The
human Jesus who stumbles and falls is the Jesus who is raised to new life. And we, who stumble and fall, will be
raised, too.
