The Way of the Cross - 14th Station

JESUS’ BODY IS LAID IN THE TOMB

John 19: 40-42
They took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, following the Jewish burial custom. At the place where he had been crucified there was a garden, and in this garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been buried. Since it was the Jewish day of preparation and the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

Romans 6: 3-6
All of us when we were baptised into Christ Jesus, were baptised into his death. So by our baptism into his death we were buried with him, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the Father’s glorious power, we too should begin living a new life. If we have been joined to him by dying a death like his, so we shall be by a resurrection like his; realising that our former self was crucified with him, so that the self which belonged to sin should be destroyed and we should be freed from the slavery of sin.


Though the burial is done with haste and lacked the time necessary, the carefully and lovingly prepared body of Jesus is placed in a new tomb. A stone is rolled into place and darkness fall. The Passover has begun and the proper burial rites will have to wait a few days. Death seems to have won the day. His body sealed up in the bowels of the earth, Jesus’ tomb proclaims to the world that death has the final say, that evil has triumphed over good, that all is vanity and the life of man, any man, is futile and ultimately dissolves into nothingness. A few years and who would remember the carpenter from Galilee who ruffled a few too many feathers among those who mattered and paid the ultimate price for it. Until that day, every tomb that had been ever used told a similar tale of woe for mankind.

But this tomb was new, no one had ever been buried in it and certainly no-one like Jesus had ever been buried in any tomb before. The tomb which mocks man and puts an end to his hopes and aspirations, would become a symbol which would put new heart into him. As the Cross, that horrible instrument, a symbol of torture and death was to become the symbol of healing and life, so too in Jesus the tomb was to become a symbol of life. For though on Good Friday the tomb of Jesus seemed to proclaim the end, on Sunday morning that same tomb proclaims the beginning of new life, the conquest of sin and death. Death where is your victory, death where is your sting? For Easter Morning will deny you your ability to boast and taunt mankind.

Lord, help us to face death when it comes to us with great faith and trust. It is in dying that we are born to eternal life and so we submit ourselves to your holy will regarding our own time to depart this life. Give us the grace to be ready and we ask that you allow your Mother to prepare us well for that day, she whom we have countless times asked to pray for us at the hour of our death.

The Way of the Cross - 13th Station

JESUS’ BODY IS TAKEN DOWN FROM THE CROSS

Luke 23: 50-53
And now a member of the Council arrived, a good and upright man named Joseph. He had not consented to what the others had planned and carried out. He came from Arimathaea, a Jewish town, and he lived in the hope of seeing the kingdom of God. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. He then took it down, wrapped it in a shroud and put it in a tomb which was hewn in stone.

Luke 2:7
And she gave birth to a son, her first-born. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger.


Mary receives the life-less body of her precious Son from the Cross. Her heart on fire with joy she had received him from the Father’s hands, full of life, and she had wrapped him in swaddling clothes. Now her heart pierced through with bitter sorrow she must hand him back to the Father, life-less, and once again she wraps him in clothes, this time a burial shroud. Who can say what anguish filled her soul. Her Son the Redeemer has given every last drop of blood in his body as a sign of the extremes of love and extremes of suffering that the Father’s will has brought him to. She has no more tears left to give, all have been poured out in the preceding hours; signs of her co-operation in her Son’s work of Salvation, of the great sorrowful suffering which she offered in union with her Lord. And with great faith she renews now her yes: “Behold the Handmaid of the Lord, let it be done according to your will.” She grieved her Son, but she grieved as one with hope, and no-one ever grieved as faithfully and filled with hope as she did. All according to your will Lord, according to your will.

We pray for all those who mourn the death of one they love, that they may not grieve without hope. Lord give them the strength to endure this bitter trial and give them the gifts of faith and hope, that even amid the darkness of death they may persevere in their expectation of the light of Resurrection.

The Way of the Cross - 12th Station

JESUS DIES ON THE CROSS

John 19:28-34
After this, Jesus knew that everything had now been completed and, so that the scripture should be completely fulfilled, he said: ‘I Thirst’. A jar full of sour wine stood there; so putting a sponge soaked in the wine on a hyssop stick, they held it up to his mouth. After Jesus had taken the wine he said, ‘It is fulfilled’; and bowing his head he gave up his spirit.

It was the Day of Preparation, and to avoid the bodies remaining on the cross during the Sabbath – since that Sabbath was a day of special solemnity – the Jews asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken away. Consequently the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with him and then the other. When they came to Jesus, they saw he was already dead, and so instead of breaking his legs one of the soldiers pierced his side with a lance; and immediately there came out blood and water.

John 7: 37-38
Jesus stood and cried out: “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me! Let anyone who believes in me come and drink! As Scripture says: ‘From his heart shall flow streams of living water’.”


As he hangs there suspended between heaven and earth all of human sin flows to him. His open arms are an invitation to human wickedness and a sign of his vulnerability. And the sin which has perverted the human heart will flow ferociously out against him. All the depravity which the human heart is capable of will flow into his heart. The river of sin seems endless, how is it possible that one man could embrace it all. But that river of sin flows into the endless ocean of merciful love that has gathered in his Divine Heart. Sin will exhaust itself as it rages against love. The more it raises its voice to scream ‘no’ the more the Saviour will quietly repeat his ‘yes’. And as the fresh water of a river flowing into the sea becomes lost in the salty deeps so the foulness of our most vile sins disappears when it is conquered by infinite love. Our sins fall upon him and his blood falls upon us. The full measure of our sins draws forth the full measure of his life’s-blood. From our wounds flow waves of death and destruction - the foul-smelling rot of sin. From his wounds flow waves of the cleansing Blood of the Lamb without blemish, the medicinal water that flows from the tree of life, from the side of the temple, which is his body; the sweet-smelling ‘yes’ offered to the Father from a truly human heart – the Divine Heart of his Son.

With each breath he takes the stench of sin and death fill his soul so that the author of life itself, moves ever closer to death. And when the last wave of the last sin ever to be committed breaks upon the shore of his suffering and he breathes deeply the stench of that sin too, he lowers his head in death, breathing out the Holy Spirit over those raging waters. “Quiet now, be still.”

Lord, by your wounds we are healed, and so we press our open wounds to yours that we may be healed.

The Way of the Cross - 11th Station

JESUS IS NAILED TO THE CROSS

Luke 23:33-34
When they reached the place of the Skull, there they crucified him and the two criminals, one on his right and one on his left. Jesus said, ‘Father forgive them; they do not know what they are doing.’

Psalm 21
Many dogs have surrounded me, a band of the wicked beset me. They tear holes in my hands and my feet and lay me in the dust of death.

Despite the pain, the exhaustion and cruelty that surrounded him, would it not have been for Jesus an interior joy to mount that cross and so accomplish the Father’s plan of salvation. Beholding the wondrous cross would he not have contemplated the countless souls who would embrace that cross, would look upon it as the image of merciful love and so understand the extremes of the Father’s love for them. Forever that image of the Saviour, arms wide open on the cross, would inspire sinners to come and be embraced by the Saviour whose arms are forever open to receive them. We can imagine that he did not shrink before it, but as he had carried it with such resolution and love, so now he would stretch himself out upon it, willingly easing himself into position.

With three powerful blows the first nail tears through Christ’s flesh and lodges itself in the wood of the Cross. Then follows the second, then the third; each with ruthless efficiency. The executioners couldn’t see that this was a defining moment for mankind – deicide, the murder of God. Had they known the importance of what they were doing at that moment then they would have known that such a moment demanded solemnity, time, ritual and they would have carried out each movement in this tragic turn of events with greater attention, with greater care allowing each atrocious wound the time and space to speak for itself. But they are completely ignorant of all this – they do not know what they are doing. Here is a criminal to be disposed of in the usual way. What they must do they do quickly and in a moment the Saviour of the world is lifted up and the full horror of a world gone mad is displayed for all to see.

The first wave of human sin is passed, but there comes another and yet another in a relentless onslaught crashing on the shores of that Divine Heart. Each wave foams with the sins of every human being of every generation. Every injustice, every lust, every infidelity, every angry word, every violent action, every evil thought, every gun fired, every bomb dropped, every abortion, every life taken, every conceivable evil that ever was or will be flood his soul. Each presents itself to the eyes of Christ as one huge tsunami following another – a tidal wave of rejection that roars ‘no’ to the Father.

Hanging on the cross the sins of the world wash over him, invade him and cause him the most unbearable suffering. He has asked for this, he has desired that it be this way because this is his Father’s will. And as each sin falls upon his head and his grief increases he utters no word of condemnation, no judgement. Silently he bears it all. No sin will every force him to say: ‘Enough – I will have no more, away with this cross!’

And amid all these thunderous waves there are countless small waves too. These waves do not crash violently over him, but timidly, humbly exhaust themselves at his feet. These are the waves of the Magdalenes of this world whose sins are not hurled at the Saviour, rather they are laid at the foot of his cross. They may be waves of sin – perhaps waves of the greatest possible sins, but they are waves which foam with repentance. These sins do cause him to suffer but as bitter as they are for him to swallow they leave a sweet taste as he gazes upon another soul saved for the Kingdom. While so many sinners would use their sins to crucify him – these sinners would have them crucified with him.

And so, as he is lifted up into the air on that Cross, Jesus’ words are not words of condemnation. From this throne, the judgement is mercy, mercy, mercy. Here the Saviour sits on his throne of mercy and the blood which flows from his crucified body pleads with the Father: Father forgive them, Father forgive them – they do not know what they are doing.

He prayed not for himself, not that the Father would ease his suffering, but that the Father would accept his sufferings in expiation for our sins. In extreme agony his thoughts were not on himself but on us, and that because, though great his physical sufferings were, it is a greater torture to him that any sinner should be lost. Father forgive them – Father forgive us, we offer you the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of your dearly beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world.

The Way of the Cross - 10th Station

JESUS IS STRIPPED OF HIS GARMENTS

Genesis 3: 21-24
The Lord God made tunics of skins for the man and his wife and clothed them. Then the Lord God said, ‘Now that the man has become like one of us in knowing good from evil, he must not be allowed to reach out his hand and pick from the tree of life too, and eat and live forever.’ So the Lord God expelled him from the Garden of Eden, to till the soil from which he had been taken. He banished the man, and in front of the garden of Eden he posted the great winged creatures and the fiery flashing sword, to guard the way to the tree of life.

Psalm 22.19
They divide My garments among them, and they cast lots for my clothes.


The Lord finally arrives at the spot of his crucifixion. And now he is stripped of his garments in front of everyone. Naked he stands before the eyes of the world. His body is torn and the onlookers can see the extent of the damage that has been inflicted on him so far.

Adam stood naked too; when he had sinned. God took pity on Adam and Eve and clothed them to ease their sense of shame. Here Christ stands sholder to shoulder with Adam. The New Adam has entered into solidarity with the Old Adam. Adam stood despoiled of the garments of grace; his sin had stripped him of it. His exterior nudity points to an interior despoiling of the soul. Jesus who is the source of all grace, allows himself to stand exposed, stripped of his dignity and allows himself to be taken as yet another sinful son of Adam who has followed the path of his father, the path of disobedience and sin. But he is the innocent one, it is not his own sin that has left him exposed to sin’s horrible consequences, but the sins of the whole world which are placed on his shoulders. “For our sake he made the sinless one a victim of sin, so that in him we might become the uprightness of God” (2 Cor 5:21).

God clothes Adam before expelling him from the Garden as a sign that one day he will once again clothe him in the robes of righteousness before his re-entry into Paradise. To do this God allows himself to be stripped; as the final movement of that stripping away which began with the Incarnation, when he stripped himself of his glory, and became one of us, like us in all things but sin. And so great was that self-emptying, that stripping away, that he now stands on the verge of death, offering to strip himself of life itself in order to give us eternal life.

Lord we ask you to clothe those who have been despoiled of the baptismal robe of righteousness through their sins. Bring many to the sacrament of confession so that they may be restored to the state of grace and the divine friendship which is your will.

The Way of the Cross - 9th Station

Jesus Falls The Third Time


Isaiah 53: 4-6
Ours were the sufferings he was bearing, ours the sorrows he was carrying, while we thought of him as someone being punished and struck with affliction by God; whereas he was being wounded for our rebellions, crushed because of our guilt; the punishment reconciling us fell on him, and we have been healed by his bruises. We had all gone astray like sheep, each taking his own way, and the Lord brought the acts of rebellion of all of us to bear on him.

Psalm 38: 4
My sins stand higher than my head, they weigh on me as an unbearable weight.


Many of the onlookers must have thought him dead at this point. There is a gasp from the crowd, but this most pitiful state does not persuade his torturers to go any easier on him. Mercilessly they give vent to their frustration that he has once again fallen. More blows rain down on him, weakening him even further. He struggles to his feet and with one last burst of strength he takes the cross upon his shoulders again. He has given more than any man could possibly give, but he desires that his efforts should reach the maximum possible gift of self. He is filled with his divine zeal to accomplish this supreme gift of self, but the weakness of his human body will not respond as vigorously as he would desire it to. His body is bent under the sheer weight of the cross. By now it seems to be a thousand times heavier than when he first laid his hands to it. His steps are slow and laborious, but each step is made. One after another, step by step, merciful love unfolds itself over poor sinful humanity. For those onlookers the effects of exhaustion might look like reluctance. If they only knew the truth – that he would run to Calvary gladly had he the physical strength to match his desire.

Lord Jesus, help us to have high ideals and aspirations in our lives. Plant in our souls a great zeal for holiness, a great desire to fulfil your will to the best of our ability. But give us the faith and trust not to be discouraged or become frustrated at our weakness which causes us to fall and prevents us from becoming all that your will calls us to be. Rather let these be moments in which we come to know that we are completely dependent upon you who said: Apart from me you can do nothing. “Glory be to him whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine” (Eph 3:20).

The Way of the Cross - 8th Station

Jesus Meets The Women Of Jerusalem

Luke 23: 28-31
Jesus turning to them said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, 'Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never gave suck!' Then they will begin to say to the mountains, 'Fall on us'; and to the hills, 'Cover us'. For if they do this when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?"


On his journey to Calvary Jesus meets some of the holy women of Jerusalem. These were not those who accompanied him from Galilee, but were women who had probably heard him teach or who had benefited from his miraculous actions. They are weeping for him and it seems that they are doing the right thing. And it is surprising that Jesus responds to them in the way that he does. Do not weep for me, weep for yourselves and your children.

Do not weep for me, as you would a victim who is swept along by the evil that is in the world, for I have the power to lay down my life and the power to take it up again. I lay down my life freely, I am a willing victim. I am in control in all this despite what might appear to you. Do not weep for me, I suffer because I want to so that I might free you from evil.

Weep rather for yourselves. To weep for me in my suffering, to have compassion on me and console me in this terrible suffering is a good thing, but it gives me more consolation that you should weep over your own sins which have caused me this great suffering and distress.

I am the green wood, pure and innocent, full of the life of God. And this is the great suffering I undergo, the fire of God’s justice devours me. How will dry wood, that is a soul dried because of its sin, stand up to that devouring flame, unless it repent and be grafted onto the green wood and be brought back to life.

Lord help us to have a better awareness of our sins and the confidence to cast them into the furnace of your loving mercy. Give us a greater capacity to repent and weep for our sins. As we accompany you along this way of misery, may we acknowledge our sins, repent of them and give thanks for your willingness to undergo such bitter trials to take those sins away.

The Way of the Cross - 7th Station

Jesus Falls The Second Time

2Cor 4:16-17
That is why we do not waver; indeed though this outer human nature of ours may be falling into decay, at the same time our inner human nature is renewed day by day. The temporary light burden of our hardships is earning us forever an utterly incomparable, eternal weight of glory.

This second fall of Jesus is more severe on him than the first. By now he is too exhausted to put up much resistance to the crushing weight of the cross and the constant tugging of the soldiers has probably contributed to this fall. The soldiers are mercilessly leading him forward, for they are in a hurry to accomplish the plans of evil. The Lord does not, however, languish in the dust. As quickly as his strength will allow him he rises once again and takes up again the burden of the cross, for though his executioners are in a hurry to carry out his death, he is in an even greater hurry to offer his life, eager that the salvation he came to bring should not be delayed by even a second. As his human strength diminishes, his sheer determination to accomplish the will of the Father gives him renewed power to go on. Resolutely he moves forward, onward towards Calvary.

Lord Jesus, help us not to waver in the resolutions and promises we have made to you. Keep us from the temptation to turn back, to renounce the decisions we have made to follow your will. When we are weak and the path ahead seems beyond our strength; when your will seems to ask more than we are able or willing to give, give us a renewed sense of purpose and a renewed zeal for your call, wherever it may be leading us.

The Way of the Cross - 5th Station

Jesus Is Helped By Simon

Mt 27:32
As they went out, they came upon a man of Cyrene, Simon by name; this man they compelled to carry his cross.

Mt 16:24
Jesus told his disciples, "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me."

Simon is someone in the wrong place at the wrong time. He is compelled; we are told, to carry the cross. He is obviously reluctant to do so. To carry the cross means to share in the shame of it, what might people think? He might be thought of as the one condemned. But, he isn’t like this condemned criminal. He is a good man. Circumstances have overtaken him though and the soldiers force him; he must take up this stranger’s cross and be associated with him. The fact that the gospel’s tell us that he was the father of Rufus and Alexander, presumably two well known persons to the early Christians, probably means that his time carrying the cross of Christ had a profound effect on him and that somewhere along the way he uncovered the truth of this criminal and the truth about who really owned that cross.

What a privilege, was Simon’s. It is a privilege the Blessed Virgin would have dearly loved to have. One can imagine that St. Paul, that great disciple of the Cross, would have longed to have had it. And here was Simon, a reluctant carrier of the Cross. Simon is like so many of us – the Cross is not something we looked for, sometimes not something we expected and it is placed upon us without our consent. It threatens us because it means stepping into the unknown and the risk of losing so much we hold dear.

Simon thought that he was carrying the Cross for Jesus when in fact it was Jesus who was carrying the Cross for him. Lord may we, when confronted by the cross in our lives, take heed of the words of your Apostle Peter: “In so far as you share in the sufferings of Christ, be glad, so that you may enjoy a much greater gladness when his glory is revealed.” (1Peter 4: 13) For we are sure that if we share your sufferings, if we embrace the crosses in our life, we will share your glory and your joy (cf. Rom 8:17).

The Way of the Cross - 4th Station

Jesus Meets His Mother

Luke 2:34-35,51
Simon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, Look, he is destined for the fall and the rise of many in Israel, destined to be a sign that is opposed – and a sword will pierce your soul too… His mother stored all these things in her heart.

Psalm 56:8
My heart is ready, Oh God, my heart is ready.

That day in the temple Mary marvelled at the wondrous things that surrounded the presentation of the child Jesus. And Simeon had forewarned her that this first presentation of her Son would have its sequel on a darker day, when a sword would pierce her soul. She pondered these things in her heart so that when the time came she would be ready. And now that day has arrived. With what love she loved her Son and her Lord, and the greater the love the keener the sufferings she would undergo. How did they meet, how long did that encounter take. Perhaps only a few seconds before the guards dragged him on. Tradition affords us no words spoken between the two. Perhaps there wasn’t enough time, but more likely there was no need. What love and pain must have passed between them in the meeting of their gaze; in the meeting of their hearts. Mary looks at her beloved Son, and the sword of sorrow which had always swayed over her maternal heart must have been plunged into that heart in that very instant. And Jesus looks at his suffering and sorrowful Mother and so beautiful is her soul, so strong and so full of love and faith, that it ravishes his Sacred Heart and more resolutely he moves on, so that all might have the chance to be somehow more like her, she who is the supreme triumph of his grace, its highest fruit.

Mother Mary – Blessed art thou among women, but what mother has suffered more than thee. Help us, Oh Holy and Sorrowful Mother, to always walk with Jesus, even when things seem beyond our strength or endurance.

The Way of the Cross - 3rd Station

Jesus Falls The First Time

Hebrews 4: 15-16
For the High Priest we have is not incapable of feeling our weaknesses with us, but has been put to the test in exactly the same way as ourselves, apart from sin.

Hebrews 12:11-12
Of course, any discipline is at the time a matter of grief, not joy; but later, in those who have undergone it, it bears fruit in peace and uprightness. So steady all weary hands and trembling knees and make your crooked paths straight; then the injured limb will not be maimed.

The initial enthusiasm with which Christ resolutely took up the cross is now being sorely tested. The weight of the cross, the blood he has lost, the horrific treatment of his body up to now, have the combined effect of making the going one immense struggle. Did he trip on a stone, did his legs simply fold beneath him, or was it a sudden swoon from loss of blood. Any and all of these might be involved, and the Lord falls on his face, his holy face already so bruised is buried in the dust and rocks of the Via Crucis. And the heavy cross comes crashing down on him, on his head, and buries that terrible crown of thorns ever deeper into his sacred head. He gets to his feet again. On he moves to Calvary.

Lord this is your first fall. Headlong you plunge into the dust, a symbol of mankind who from the dawn of creation rushed headlong in disobedience back into the dust from which we are made. Dust we are and unto dust we shall return, though we were made in your image and likeness. This fall is also a symbol of your Incarnation, lowering yourself to be like us in all things, but sin. But as you raise yourself with great effort from that dust, even here we see the seeds of resurrection beginning to sprout. In this scene you speak to our hearts and say: Arise, Oh Man, work of my hands, arise, you who were fashioned in my image. (Office of Readings – Holy Saturday).

Lord you desire to give us life to the full, raise us out of dead ways and dead works, raise us out of the dust of sin, let us dust ourselves off, turn with confident resolution towards you and continue walking. Give us strength Lord to walk that journey of faith. We are weak and so we do not expect that we will never fall again. But Lord, when we fall give us the faith and hope to always rise again, relying on your merciful love, give us the strength to continue on. Lord give this day the gift of confidence to all those who believe in your name and may many rise again through the sacrament of penance; your image restored to them, and the dust of sin wiped away.

The Way of the Cross - 2nd Station

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Jesus Takes Up His Cross

Matthew 27:27-31
Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor's headquarters, and they gathered the whole cohort around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and after twisting some thorns into a crown, they put it on his head. They put a reed in his right hand and knelt before him and mocked him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!" They spat on him, and took the reed and struck him on the head. After mocking him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.

Hebrews 12: 2-3
Let us not lose sight of Jesus who leads us in our faith and brings it to perfection. For the sake of the joy which was still in the future, he endured the cross, disregarding the shamefulness of it.

To those who led him to the cross, it represented an instrument of inhuman torture. But to Jesus it is the key with which he will unlock the gates of paradise. Jesus lovingly embraces this Cross, for with it he will receive the baptism for which he longed to be baptised. Upon it He will be immersed in bitter suffering so that we can be immersed in the mercy of God. It is placed upon his shoulders, the heavy yoke of sin. He who said: ‘Come to me all you who labour and are over-burdened and I will give you rest… my yoke is easy and my burden is light’, now finds himself burdened by the immense weight of the cross. Physically it is a heavy yoke for his already bruised and battered body; spiritually it is an almost impossible burden, and who but the God-man could possibly support its insufferable weight.

Lord Jesus help us to support the daily crosses of all shapes and sizes that you ask us to embrace in our lives. You have shown us the way and, for the love of you and the reward you promise, may we endure it gladly.

Lord often we are reluctant to shoulder the cross, to touch it at all would mean suffering. Accept our meager efforts to accompany you in your passion. Allow us to unite our efforts with your incredible efforts so that like St. Paul we may be able to say: It makes me happy to be suffering for you now, and in my own body to make up all the suffering that still has to be undergone by Christ for the sake of his body, the Church’ (Col 1:24).

The Way of the Cross - 1st Station

As Lent is upon us once again, I've decided to post little reflection on each of the Stations of the Cross over the next few weeks. We begin with the 1st Station

1st Station - Jesus Is Condemned To Death

Mark 15: 12-15
Pilate said to them, "Then what am I to do with the man you call King of the Jews?" They shouted back, “crucify him" Pilate asked them, "What harm has he done?" But they shouted all the louder, "Crucify him!" So Pilate, anxious to placate the crowd, released Barabbas for them and, after having Jesus scourged, he handed him over to be crucified.

Acts 13:28
Though they found nothing to justify his execution, they condemned him and asked Pilate to have him put to death.

Even though Pilate asks that question of Jesus: What is truth?, he knows the truth, the truth that Jesus is innocent. And yet out of fear, out of a desire to please the crowd, he finds the truth to be inconvenient and so he condemns the Lord of life to a terrible death. His judgement is unjust; the most unjust judgement ever made and yet the Lord uses that great travesty of justice and from this condemnation will come the acquittal of the every sinner who is willing to lay bear the truth about himself to the Lord’s merciful judgement. God gave his only Son, Jesus Bar Abba, Jesus Son of the Father, so that we who are wayward sons like Barabbas could go free. We do not deserve it, we did not merit it, and it cost the Lord everything. “What proves that God loves us is that Christ died for us while we were still sinners. (Rom 5:8). We are the convicted offenders, the sinners, we are the ones who deserve to die, but the Lord desires to free us from this sentence. He presents himself as the accused, as the sinner, and he is condemned to death in our place. The Son of God is condemned by man and man is set free by the Son of God.

Lord, you yourself said: “I was born for this, I came into the world for this, to bear witness to the truth; and all who are on the side of truth listen to my voice.”

Lord Jesus may we be always found on the side of truth. May our decisions be just, may they be merciful. Help us to show mercy in all the situations of our life so that we may be shown mercy in our turn. Lord you died to make us sons and daughters of the Father, may we always remain faithful to that high dignity, purchased by your intense suffering, and may we always be thankful for the freedom you purchased for us through your most bitter passion and death.