STATIONS OF THE CROSS
The word “station” comes from Latin and means “to stand.” The stations of the cross have historically invited people to
stand in front of individual moments that made up Christ’s journey to the cross. They are a chance to pause, reflect,
pray and worship.
This online experience is much the same. The readings, artwork and music are offered for you to
once again revisit the passion of Jesus.
MATTHEW 26:20-30
When evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the Twelve. And while they were eating, he said, "I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me." They were very sad and began to say to him one after the other, "Surely not I, Lord?" Jesus replied, "The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me. The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born."
Then Judas, the one who would betray him, said, "Surely not I, Rabbi?" Jesus answered, "Yes, it is you."
While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take and eat; this is my body." Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father's kingdom."
When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
FRIENDS
One would deny him.
Two wanted his power.
One doubted his power.
Most misunderstood him.
All would abandon him.
Surely not I, Lord?
Yes.
I would never.
I don’t want to be
like those friends.
But to not be
is to not come to the table
and to miss the words,
“This is for you.”
Father in Heaven,
Thank you for sending Jesus. Thank you for being a God who understands suffering from the inside out.
As I enter into this time of reflection, I ask that you will meet me in tangible ways. Help this old story become fresh in my ears and heart. May I leave here with a profound sense of the cost of forgiveness and the depth of your love.
Amen
MATTHEW 26:36-46
Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, "Sit here while I go over there and pray." He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me."
Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will."
Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. "Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?" he asked Peter. "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak."
He went away a second time and prayed, "My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done."
When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.
Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, "Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour is near, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us go! Here comes my betrayer!"
GARDEN
In the night of weary souls
when courage and color
have been drained away
and my once willing spirit
has given way to fear
and my broken mind
refuses to respond
and my weakened body
cannot stay awake
in the desperate hour
and the fatigue
outweighs my intentions
and my intentions
are less than pure
and I am no help to myself –
In that place I find Christ,
praying for me.
Jeff Peabody
Father in Heaven,
I am like the disciples in the garden. At times I am too tired to care,
and then when I do care I try to take matters into my own hands.
In this moment, in the garden that is my life right now,
I want to pray that your will -- not mine -- will be done.
I give you the circumstances that are most pressing in on me today.
Amen
MATTHEW 26:14-15
Then one of the Twelve—the one called Judas Iscariot—went to the chief priests and asked,
“What are you willing to give me if I deliver him over to you?”
So they counted out for him thirty pieces of silver.
LUKE 22:47-4
While he was still speaking a crowd came up, and the man who was called Judas, one of the Twelve, was leading them. He approached Jesus to kiss him, but Jesus asked him, "Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?"
TRUE AND FALSE
True and False
travel
in the same circles
walk
side by side
breaking bread
together
sharing
space and time
always
almost
on the same page
Yet False
cannot hold
the clear-eyed gaze
of its constant companion
the unblinking reminder
of all it is
and is not
So it runs
escaping the
unbearable reality
to fetch Destruction
leading the way back
where it knows
True will be found
always open
and vulnerable
One last show
of feigned friendship
a fake smile
a kiss on the cheek
a knife in the back
and True is finished.
But so is False.
The once hidden lie
now exposed
in the light
of torches
it invited.
Jeff Peabody
JOHN 18:10-11, LUKE 22:51
Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest's servant, cutting off his right ear. (The servant's name was Malchus.) Jesus commanded Peter, "Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?"
And he touched the man’s ear and healed him.
MIRACLE
Yes.
It was amazing.
Jesus restoring flesh
back to normal.
Especially when you realize
it was the ear
of the servant
of the one
who wanted him dead.
Perhaps no less amazing
yet sadly necessary
is that in the midst of the chaos,
Christ has the capacity
and the willingness
to undo the serious damage
inflicted by
reckless followers
wielding swords.
May every Malchus find it so.
Jeff Peabody
LUKE 22:54-62
Then seizing him, they led him away and took him into the house of the high priest. Peter followed at a distance. But when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down with them. A servant girl saw him seated there in the firelight. She looked closely at him and said, "This man was with him."
But he denied it. "Woman, I don't know him," he said. A little later someone else saw him and said, "You also are one of them."
"Man, I am not!" Peter replied. About an hour later another asserted, "Certainly this fellow was with him, for he is a Galilean."
Peter replied, "Man, I don't know what you're talking about!" Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: "Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times." And he went outside and wept bitterly.
FIRE
I am drawn
to flames that speak lies,
the promise of warmth
denied by ice floes
encasing my soul.
It is a false fire,
hollow as my own words.
They are no comfort,
these burning coals
with their acrid plumes.
Still -- I see him
and am seen
through the haze
swirling between us.
The foul, gritty smoke
cannot be blamed
for my stinging eyes
or this now
unbearable heat.
Jeff Peabody
MATTHEW 26:59-6
The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for false evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death. But they did not find any, though many false witnesses came forward. Finally two came forward and declared, "This fellow said, 'I am able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days.'" Then the high priest stood up and said to Jesus, "Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?"
But Jesus remained silent. The high priest said to him, "I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God." "Yes, it is as you say," Jesus replied. "But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven."
Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, "He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?"
"He is worthy of death," they answered. Then they spit in his face and struck him with their fists. Others slapped him and said, "Prophesy to us, Christ. Who hit you?"
PRIEST
Acid words
spew from
the high priest
air hisses
and blisters
each syllable
finding its mark
an easy target
Contempt and fear
are ugly sisters
who refuse veils
judging swiftly
through hateful
blind eyes
All the while
mercy
unbidden
unspoken
unrecognized
The stern accuser
oblivious to
wordless grace
absorbing his
misplaced outrage
Another high priest
stands in the room
taking all fury
and offering
a sacrifice
of silence
Jeff Peabody
JOHN 18:28-40
Then the Jews led Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness the Jews did not enter the palace; they wanted to be able to eat the Passover. So Pilate came out to them and asked, "What charges are you bringing against this man?"
"If he were not a criminal," they replied, "we would not have handed him over to you."
Pilate said, "Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law."
"But we have no right to execute anyone," the Jews objected. This happened so that the words Jesus had spoken indicating the kind of death he was going to die would be fulfilled. Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, "Are you the king of the Jews?"
"Is that your own idea," Jesus asked, "or did others talk to you about me?"
"Am I a Jew?" Pilate replied. "It was your people and your chief priests who handed you over to me. What is it you have done?"
Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place."
"You are a king, then!" said Pilate.
Jesus answered, "You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me."
"What is truth?" Pilate asked. With this he went out again to the Jews and said, "I find no basis for a charge against him. But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release 'the king of the Jews'?"
They shouted back, "No, not him! Give us Barabbas!"
Now Barabbas had taken part in a rebellion.
PILATE
I expected
a cleaner verdict
with lesser stakes
and fewer doubts.
My sure decision a salve
for the angry wounds
of other people’s religion.
But now
face to face,
I am unsettled
by the stillness of you,
a rock jutting from
the swirling torrent,
a clear note in the cacophony,
the Calmer of Storms.
The rabid mob
calls for your death,
while you, in turn,
call for my life:
“Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
What are you saying?
That cannot be.
And what is truth?
Deflected words stick
to the tough hide of my conscience
clinging to my soul,
refusing to rinse away.
It is no longer
the criminal’s future
but my own,
hanging in the balance.
The question of you
is now the question of me:
Will I wash my hands,
or let you wash my feet?
Jeff Peabody
MATTHEW 27:27-31
Then the governor's soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand and knelt in front of him and mocked him. "Hail, king of the Jews!" they said.
They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.
CROWN
Artless, this made thing
this crafted piece
of raging ignorance
twisted in a jagged circle
like some barbed wire halo.
A non-coronation
the intent to humiliate
pressed down into his skull
crushing any claims of power
beneath an excruciating
lid of contempt.
But the making
is not the wearing.
In spite of themselves
unwitting soldiers
adorn him with
an insignia of truth.
Thorns
the scourge of the fall
failure’s entangling result
the pointed poison
forever lodged
beneath humanity’s skin
the unrelenting tormentor
weakening Paul
and me
Those thorns,now taken up
and resting
upon the brow of Christ.
He accepted the crown willingly
and in so doing sanctified it.
Even hate turns inside out
when worn by the author of love.
Jeff Peabody
LUKE 23:26
As they led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus.
LABOR OF LOVE
History came disguised
as menial labor.
Guards unwittingly
handed sainthood
to the father of
Alexander and Rufus
as they pressed him into service,
choosing him for a brute task,
mere muscle to be exploited.
But it was salvation
he held in his hands
and the Savior’s footsteps
he followed.
Task was transformed,
faith took root,
reaching his two sons,
forever changing the legacy
of Simon of Cyrene.
Redemption starts everywhere.
Jeff Peabody
MATTHEW 27:33-50
They came to a place called Golgotha (which means The Place of the Skull). There they offered Jesus wine to drink, mixed with gall; but after tasting it, he refused to drink it. When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots. And sitting down, they kept watch over him there. Above his head they placed the written charge against him: THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS.
Two robbers were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, "You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!" In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. "He saved others," they said, "but he can't save himself! He's the King of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, 'I am the Son of God.'"
In the same way the robbers who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him. From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"-which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
When some of those standing there heard this, they said, "He's calling Elijah." Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a stick, and offered it to Jesus to drink. The rest said, "Now leave him alone. Let's see if Elijah comes to save him."
And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.
MATTHEW 27:51
At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.
TORN
Hanging between
Heaven and earth
shielding the sinful
from an outbreak of holy
line both separating and joining
God and humanity
now undone
torn into being The Way
a Savior woven
and ripped
like a tapestry
his very self
a shredded welcome
Jeff Peabody
Father in Heaven,
Thank you for giving us access and inviting us in.
Thank you that we can come boldly into your presence and find mercy.
Please remove the barriers in my own heart that keep me from approaching you.
Amen
LUKE 23:49
But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.
John 19:31-34
Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jews did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down.
The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus' side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water.
REMOVAL
I thought I knew
who I was following
and where this would lead.
Yet my vision
now hangs lifeless,
nailed in place by others
with their own illusions.
It is a death
I did not foresee
and I am undone
by the onset of reality.
Take him down.
I am done with misguided faith.
I will look on him no longer.
Remove my non-Christ,
the unsaving Savior
I imagined for myself.
Wrapping his body,
I will bury my false idol
beside this Jesus
and wait for a better hope.
Jeff Peabody
LUKE 23:50-54
Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the Council, a good and upright man, who had not consented to their decision and action. He came from the Judean town of Arimathea and he was waiting for the kingdom of God. Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus' body. Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid. It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin.
WHAT TO DO WITH A DEAD JESUS
The living Jesus
is the one who had caused such a stir,
who made bold claims
changed the weather
silenced demons
healed diseases
Who embarrassed religious leaders
and infuriated rule keepers
and delighted crowds
and loved the world.
That was the living one.
Even the dying Jesus
called for a response
drawing stares from onlookers
And jeers from enemies
And belief from strangers.
While dying
he quoted Scripture
welcomed a thief
cared for his mother
and caused the ground to shake.
But a dead Jesus
can only be a gruesome burden
a sober reminder
of a dream not just gone,
but beaten
and bruised
and broken.
A dead Jesus
didn’t meet expectations
or rescue himself.
Now he appeared powerless
to change the world.
Now he himself needed
to be lifted and carried
and mourned.
What do you do with him?
Joseph of Arimathea
pressed in
uncomfortably close
to the blood-soaked,
sweat-stained
lead weight mess
of a lifeless Savior.
Rather than recoil in horror
he embraced reality,
brought the body down
and gave it the one thing he had:
his very own grave.
The dead Jesus
laid to rest in the space
intended for a dead Joseph.
Joseph had no expectation for this body.
He didn’t claim it for what it could do for him.
His faith was not yet so big as to believe
there could be more.
But still – he wanted to honor this death
to acknowledge it somehow
to wrap the significance of it
into his own existence.
And that was enough.
Enough to hold the despair of Friday
And the silence of Saturday
Until Sunday could rewrite the ending.
What do we do with a dead Jesus?
When he hasn’t met our expectations
When he seems cold to our need
And incapable of responding
with anything like help.
Can we still take him home?
To the spaces we’ve held onto
for our own private grief,
hollow caves of sorrow
too painful to share.
What might it look like
to offer such a tomb to him?
Can we allow the reality of Jesus
to reside there, to rest there
even when our faith is too small
to expect anything more from him?
Can we stay uncomfortably close
and hold the weight
of a messy Savior
who chose not to resist rejection
who suffered the injustice
and guilt and shame
and misunderstanding
and mockery
and abuse
and abandonment of the whole world?
He took up our infirmities
The death meant for us.
If we can do nothing else,
Can we invite that truth in?
Can we make room for it
in our most lifeless places,
honoring it by
wrapping it into our own existence?
That would be enough.
What will you do with a dead Jesus?
Know this:
Christ does his best work
in borrowed graves.