6. JESUS FALLS

Verses

“I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels—a plentiful harvest of new lives.”
— John 12:24 (NLT)

Questions

What is your natural reaction when you see someone fall down?
Have you ever stumbled in public? How did that feel to be seen that way?
What’s unsettling about having weaknesses?

Meditation

In this image we see the juxtaposition of a branch and the leaves falling off of that branch. The

branch is connected to a larger reality - the tree, the roots, a whole network. And yet there are

aspects of the tree that seasonally fall. Detach. Die. Decay. There is nothing wrong with that

tree. There are just seasons in the life of a tree that involve descent. We literally call it “Fall”.

In a similar way, the journey to the cross reveals the weakness of Christ’s human body. After the beating and the weight of the cross, His strength begins to fail.

Though the Gospels do not describe every step of the road to Golgotha, Christian tradition remembers that Jesus stumbled along the way.

Jesus partook in falling down.

The Son of God truly entered the fragility of human life. Weakness, exhaustion, and physical limitation were not foreign to Him.

Human life is shaped by many forces beyond human control.

Gravity is not something anyone commands. When the body weakens or the systems that hold it upright falter, the ground rises to meet us.

Other powers greater than human willpower surround every life:

The rhythm of a beating heart.
The air the lungs must breathe.
The water the body must drink.

Weather patterns.
Tectonic plates.
Accidents and unforeseen events.

Fear.
Sadness.
Joy.
Anger.
Love.

The body itself.

When the fragile systems that keep a person upright falter, the body falls.

All human beings experience this.

Even Jesus.

Yet Scripture reminds believers that His suffering was not meaningless:

“Yet it was our weaknesses he carried;  

it was our sorrows that weighed him down.…
But he was pierced for our rebellion,

    crushed for our sins.

He was beaten so we could be whole.

    He was whipped so we could be healed.”
— Isaiah 53:4–5 (NLT)

The One who stumbled beneath the cross was carrying not only the weight of the wood, but the weight of the world’s sin.

Because Christ entered human weakness, believers follow a Savior who understands their suffering and leads them through it toward resurrection.

Paul reminds believers that our present weakness is not the end of the story:

“That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.”
— 2 Corinthians 4:16–18 (NLT)

The Church prays:

“O God, whose blessed Son made himself known to his disciples in the breaking of bread: Open the eyes of our faith, that we may behold him in all his redeeming work.”
— Book of Common Prayer, p. 308