Station 5
PRAYER:
Lord, you know what it is to experience rejection from your own people, yet you did not protest or try to defend yourself, but humbly moved towards death by crucifixion with purpose and dignity, accepting help to carry your cross. Thank you that I do not carry my own cross through this life alone, for you give me strength. You show me how to care for others, even when I am in the midst of my own suffering.
Forgive me for the times I have been so consumed with my own grief, struggles or busyness that I have not noticed those around me who needed a kind word or practical help.
May I graciously accept help on the occasions when my load is too heavy to bear alone. Give me wisdom to know how to best support others.
SCRIPTURE 1:
"When the chief priests and the guards saw [Jesus] they cried out, "Crucify him, crucify him!" Pilate said to them, "Take him yourselves and crucify him. I find no guilt in him." ... They cried out, "Take him away, take him away! Crucify him!" Pilate said to them, "Shall I crucify your king?" The chief priests answered, "We have no king but Caesar." Then he handed him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus, and carrying the cross himself he went out to what is called the Place of the Skull, in Hebrew, Golgotha."
(John 19: 6, 15-17)
SCRIPTURE 2:
"They pressed into service a passer-by, Simon, a Cyrenian, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross."
(Mark 15: 21)
SCRIPTURE 3:
"A large crowd of people followed Jesus, including many women who mourned and lamented him. Jesus turned to them and said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep instead for yourselves and for your children, for indeed, the days are coming when people will say, 'Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed.' At that time, people will say to the mountains, 'Fall upon us!' and to the hills, 'Cover us!' for if these things are done when the wood is green what will happen when it is dry?"
(Luke 23: 27-31)