Homilies on the Stations of the Cross AD 2010 - The First Sunday of Lent....

This week we reflect upon the first two Stations, or incidents, that occurred on this final phase of the journey that Jesus undertook on our behalf:

I. Jesus is condemned to death

John 19:13 When Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Pavement, and in Hebrew, Gab'batha. 14 Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, "Behold your King!" 15 They cried out, "Away with him, away with him, crucify him!" Pilate said to them, "Shall I crucify your King?" The chief priests answered, "We have no king but Caesar." 16 Then he handed him over to them to be crucified.

With terrifying cries of condemnation an innocent man is led away to be murdered by the state. Pilate is recorded as having washed his hands, but others are also washing their hands of Jesus and have made sure that the decision was taken by an occupying force - and a pagan regime to boot. Truth and Goodness are the victims of intolerance and fear.

We live in an intolerant world. Yes, the word tolerance is bandied about these days and we are all supposed to be tolerant, but scratch the surface and what do we find? Unfortunately, we all sign up to tolerance as long as everyone signs up to what we want or believe. This is one of the problems of fallen mankind: we rarely cope with those whose lives or views do not conform to what we consider right or true. We like to think that we deal with those whose views we consider wrong in a more tolerant way today, but we still have wars and feuds; we still have people hounded in their communities and in the media; and we still have the Police knocking on peoples’ doors demanding that they give an explanation of the views they have expounded on the Radio or Television.

We also continue to live in a world where the innocent are imprisoned, persecuted and even fall victim to murder by the state because they are considered to hold the wrong opinions by those in positions of power. It seems that those who wield power are afraid of only one thing: losing their power. Truth is an inconvenience to such people, and it seems as if it is all too easily discarded for expediencies sake.

Behind the scenes of this first Station of the Cross there is frenetic activity going on with even more desperate and urgent meetings to which Jesus is hauled. Such is the desperation to have this man’s execution authorised by the hands of others that he is hauled back and forth across Jerusalem from Caiaphas to Annas, to Herod and to Pontius Pilate. In other words to one court after another until the desired result is obtained. In the end they all try to wash their hands of the taint of this man’s death and their part in it.

But what about us, are we any different? Are we any more tolerant? How easily do we condemn? How often to we fail to listen? How often have we gone along with the crowd, and in so doing have compromised Truth and Goodness? How often have we washed our hands and others have suffered as a result?


II. Jesus Receives the Cross

John 19:17 So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called the place of a skull, which is called in Hebrew Gol'gotha.

“So they took Jesus” – “took” a word which conveys the plight of innocent victims everywhere. Taken by force, against their will and treated as expendable. The hands that went about blessing and healing met no such treatment at the hands of the Roman soldiers. Instead he was taken by force and made to go to his death. There have been countless numbers of people throughout history who were “taken” and sent on the way to their deaths. The cynic and unbeliever will probably ask why should we pay any more attention to this innocent victim? The answer lies in the matter of who this “man” is: his full identity. For the cynic and unbeliever this is just one more innocent victim so why should he be special – but that view is to miss the point.

There is a view of God that sees him as some sort of bearded old tyrant sitting up above watching mankind as if we were ants and keeping a checklist on each of us. On this checklist he marks a tick when we do something good and a cross when we do something bad. Well, what hope is there in a God like that? In the face of suffering and death what hope could a God like that give; would a God like that even care?

But in this lonely figure who was “taken” and sent out on his way to death we see a different portrayal of God. We see God who has stepped into time and who has lived a human life and who is about to suffer and die as an innocent victim. This innocent victim is God incarnate willingly going to his death to redeem his people. Where was God at Lockerbie, Where was God in Haiti, Where was God in Auschwitz? Where was God at 9/11? These are the questions that many ask in their bewilderment and pain. But it seems to be asked by those who lived fairly comfortable lives and by those who have never experienced suffering far more than those who actually suffer.

Where was God in these terrible events? He was suffering and dying with them on the planes and in the twin towers, he was suffering and dying with them during the earthquake, and that he was with his ancient People the Jews (our elder brothers and sisters in faith), with the Christians, with the gypsies, with the homosexuals and communists in the Gas Chambers. On the way of the Cross God incarnate has been taken by brute force and sent to his death – God so identifies with his people that in his Son he becomes one with them in their suffering and death.

He is also sent out “bearing his own cross” and this makes me think of that final phrase in the Gospel for the First Sunday of Lent in this year of St Luke’s Gospel “and when the devil had ended every temptation he departed from him until an opportune time.” Is this moment when Jesus receives the Cross the opportune time? We can almost hear the phrase “A weight too heavy to bear” – could this have been the temptation that our Lord faced at this hour? The weight of the sins of the whole world pressing down upon his shoulders, and yet whether he is tempted in this way or not he summons the strength to bear the Cross and to go forward to the Place of the Skull.

The weight that he receives, the weight that he carries, he receives and carries for all of us. He receives and carries it for all the innocent victims who have and will perish at the hands of wicked people, for all those who suffer from famine, disease or disaster. This God is no tyrant watching us scurry about like ants – this God is not dispassionate about human suffering and death, no: he is “compassionate,” that beautiful word which means “shared suffering.” Here we see the true face of God, the full identity of this innocent victim. Jesus is the one who truly and fully shares in the human condition – he is the one who shares our sufferings, the one who has compassion.