Eleventh Station: Jesus is nailed to the cross
Scripture
“In that place they nailed him to a cross along with two others, on either side. Jesus hung in the midst of them” (John 19.18).
Meditation
I’d like to lay claim to be the muscle
behind the hammer-fall that caused the screams,
or the rope-man that lashed the wrists to wood
outside the walls where all who pass could see.
But I don’t rank that glamorous a crime.
I never even saw him, barely heard
the screams afar over the forge’s roar
after they asked me for three nails—hard, sharp—
that I grabbed from the bin without thinking.
So, now, after the tumult, the regret
just seems like too small a thing to mention,
too minute a sin to ask forgiveness.
Prayer
Jesus, our friend and heart’s desire, it was our hands that seized you, ours that pressed yours to the wood and drove home, ignoring your screams, each nail. And today we will do it again by choosing the world over you. We will turn to our way rather than yours. But turning again, we find over and over that you have taken our betrayal and responded with forgiveness and love. On this, your Passionate Way, turn and remake our hearts to ones willing to love each other just as you have loved us. We ask this so that we too may be called Little Christs. Amen.