Way of the Cross - 4

THE WAY OF THE CROSS – 4

(Preached Lent 1997 and 2003)

Introduction

We continue our walk with Jesus from Pilate's house, along the Via Dolorosa - the Way of Sorrows – to Calvary. As we do so, we stop every so often and recall the various experiences of Jesus along the way, and we reflect how those experiences can help us to interpret our own experience today when we too find ourselves suffering innocently as a result of other people’s actions.

We focus not only upon the Via Dolorosa of Jesus 2000 years ago, but also upon our own Via Dolorosa of today.

We shall stop three times today, and I have summed up the three experiences as Doing, Stripping and Nailing.

JESUS FALLS A THIRD TIME

"We had all gone astray like sheep, each taking his own way, and Yahweh burdened him with the sins of us all". (Isaiah 53.6)

Doing

Have you ever considered the many cruel things that people did to Jesus during his final 24 hours upon this earth?

He was pushed from pillar to post like a sack of potatoes. He was dressed up and mocked as a king. He was spat upon. He was whipped with a leather strap with bits of lead knotted at the end of each strap in order to tear the flesh apart. He was forced to walk along crowded and unfriendly streets bearing the crossbeam of his means of execution. He was goaded along the way like sheep being herded for slaughter. Finally he was nailed to the cross and hung there for some six hours before he died, with the weight of his body tearing the flesh from the nails and finally, to make sure he was dead, a spear was thrust into his side.

But let us not forget some of the kind things that were done to Jesus during his last 24 hours upon earth.

He was loaned a room for the Last Supper by the mother of John Mark. He was also helped by Simon of Cyrene who helped to carry his cross. He was enabled to bear the pain by having it lessened with a sup of vinegar. Alas the cruel acts far outweighed the kind acts and through cruelty, rather than through kindness, he dies.

So it was through cruel actions - sinful actions – that Jesus falls the third time along the Via Dolorosa.

It is doubtful, save in the case of war, that any of us will commit such sinful acts. But let us not blind ourselves to our sinful nature. Perhaps for us it is not so much what we do, but what we fail to do that heaps the weight of sin upon the shoulders of Jesus and makes him fall beneath the cross.

Our neglect of opportunities for caring service; our waste of talent; our shoddy workmanship; our lack of concern for the environment and the effects of pollution; our avoidance of safety procedures; our shrug of the shoulder; our refusal to look at a person; our turning the other way pretending not to see; our lack of welcome, our slovenly approach.

It is said that actions speak louder than words. So often our actions, or rather our lack of actions, appear more designed to demolish the kingdom of God upon earth rather than to build it. All this continues to add to the weight of the cross causing Jesus to stumble yet again.

JESUS IS STRIPPED OF HIS GARMENTS

"When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothing and divided it into four shares, one for each soldier. His undergarment was seamless, woven in one piece from neck to hem; so they said to one another, 'instead of tearing it, let us throw dice to decide who is to have it'.” (John 19.23-24)

Stripping

So Jesus arrives at Calvary. Before he is nailed to the cross he is stripped of his clothing. He stands there naked while the soldiers decide who is to have his clothes. The soldiers, like most of the world, are totally indifferent to Jesus. The perks of the job must be sought and haggled over while Jesus just stands there - cold, naked, tired, hungry and exhausted. Rights must come before people and personal greed must come before other people’s need.

Jesus had few earthly possessions. Even the few he had, he was not allowed to keep. We come into this world naked, and we leave this world naked. As Job, stripped of his material possessions earlier remarked, "The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away".

Someone once said that the disease of the western world is that we spend hours buying things we don't want, to impress people we don't like, with money we don't have. How very true. Material possessions may well give us a sense of security in this world, but they can hinder our preparation for the next world. Not only do they create a false sense of security, but they can also divert our energy and time, and, as a consequence, lead us to neglect those things which do not pass away.

The religious orders of our land stand as a constant reminder of the need to keep material wealth in its place, by their vow of poverty. There is nothing wrong with material possessions in themselves. The danger lies in the deception they can offer their owners.

Day after day we see displayed on our television screens the products of a materialistic age and we are brainwashed into thinking not only that we must have them, but that we deserve them. Yet day by day, on our television screens we see€ pictures of refugees wandering from country to country with their few possessions carried in a tattered old suitcase.

If you had to leave your home with a tatty old medium sized suitcase today, what would you take? How would you decide? How would you feel?

When we stand before God at the final judgment, we, like Jesus, will be stripped naked - what will material possessions do for us then?

JESUS IS NAILED TO THE CROSS

"They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha, which means the place of a skull. They offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he refused it.......it was the third hour when they crucified him". (Mark 15.22-24)

Nailing

With the thud of the hammer, nails are driven into the wrists of Jesus. With the thud of the hammer, nails go through the skin beneath either ankle. Thus Jesus is nailed to the cross. Unable to move. All freedom is removed.

For thirty odd years he had enjoyed the freedom of the countryside, walked where he wanted to walk, sailed where he wanted to sail. Like a bird in the air he had enjoyed the freedom. Now he is nailed down and that precious gift of freedom is denied him.

There are many people today who do not have the opportunity to enjoy physical freedom. They too are nailed down. The polio victim in an iron lung, the kidney patient linked up regularly to a dialysis machine, the arthritic unable to move without aids, the blind dependent upon a guide dog, the person with a heart condition unable to do strenuous exercises, the paraplegic confined to a wheelchair, the geriatric limited to the four walls of their home. Like Jesus, many people appear to be physically nailed down through no fault of their own.

Others have their intellectual freedom denied them through the absence of choice, by continuous brainwashing by the state, which can select a provision of reading material, and censure broadcasts and television viewing, through bigoted teaching. Such people are conditioned to believe and behave according to the whims and fancies of others who believe it is for their own good. Those who protest become political prisoners who waste away in sanatoriums and prison cells – whilst some are killed.

Others arc spiritually nailed down and denied freedom by unforgiven sin, which curtails their personal relationships. Yet the irony is that the forgiveness that Jesus came to bring us was only made possible through him losing his freedom.

So, as those nails are hammered home, we think of those whose physical and intellectual freedom has been taken away. Yet we rejoice that no man, save for pride, need endure spiritual imprisonment for Christ offers freedom from the cross to which he was nailed for you and for me.

Prayer

O Jesus, save us from our temptations, and deliver us from the power of sin.

O Jesus, Lord of all truth, keep us from all self-deceit and outward show, and teach us never to fear the loss of earthly possessions.

O Jesus, your hands and feet are nailed. Help all the helpless to serve the Father with you and to know your presence.