The Sixth Station: Nailed to the Cross

"After carrying his Cross, Jesus came to the Place of the Skull (in Hebrew, Golgatha). There they crucified him and two others with him."

Hammers pound nails into raw flesh. Bones and tendons are separated, hands curl in agony. The cross is raised up and dropped into place. An innocent man is killed. "God reigns from a tree."

There is pain in our community. There are many innocent who suffer. There is great injustice all around us. We name the sins that surround and engulf the innocent: racism, sexism, greed, idolatry, lack of respect - the list goes on and on. These are the nails that are pounded into the flesh of the innocent. A child is shot on the street. A cross in burned in someone’s front yard. A young woman is raped. The bones and tendons of community are separated, hands are curled in agony. The cross is raised up and dropped into place. The violence has structure to it. It is institutional in nature. The Jewish leadership kills Jesus because he challenges their position of power and prestige. Pilate kills him to mollify the Jewish leadership, and to make an example of him. Others stand around and allow it to happen because they are afraid to do what is right. We allow the innocent to suffer to maintain our standard of living. We allow them to suffer because it is easier than doing something about it. We allow them to suffer because we have something at stake in their suffering, or simply because we are afraid. That is why he is hanging there. He still suffers because of us. He still suffers for us. He still weeps for us. We see him in the least among us. We see him in those to whom we are unjust.

Paul says that Jesus was slain before the foundations of the world were laid. What he means is that it has always been this way with us. Our greed, our egos, our covetous hearts demand the blood of the innocent. We cannot bear to hear God’s voice condemning us. So we kill him. We nail him to a tree, and figure we’ve done with him.

But you can’t get rid of him so easily. He promises resurrection. That means he won’t go away. Nether do the innocent, whose murders are on our hands. They bear a continuing testimony to our sins. But they also offer hope – that there is the possibility of resurrection, the possibility of another kind of living.

Jesus said, “I, when I am lifted up, will draw all people unto me.” It is an invitation. God’s righteous judgment is not the same as his condemnation. His judgment opens up the way to new life, to a new way of living, to resurrection.

Isaiah says, “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed.” A new possibility is opened up by his death – the possibility raised by the thief on the cross – that we might begin again to live in him by faith: that we might begin to see others as God sees them, that we might begin to value brotherhood over economic opportunity, that we may refuse labels, other than “brother” and “sister,” that we might begin to see what has been placed into our hands as gifts rather than rights, as opportunities to serve rather than for exploitation of others. We can live in the resurrection rather than in death.

Easier said than done. But do it we must, if we are to walk with Jesus.

We take our stand with Jesus. We want to walk with him, walk all the way - all the way to Calvary.