Stations
of the Cross |
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Station 1 -
Jesus is condemned to death |
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| The Scripture Reading | |
| 1
Samuel 8:10-18 10: So Samuel told all the words of the LORD to the people who were asking a king from him. 11: He said, "These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen, and to run before his chariots; 12: and he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. 13: He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. 14: He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. 15: He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. 16: He will take your menservants and maidservants, and the best of your cattle and your asses, and put them to his work. 17: He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. 18: And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves; but the LORD will not answer you in that day." |
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| The Mediation & Prayer | |
| Jesus is condemned by the
authority of the Roman Governor for a Roman crime: the crime of sedition.
He claims to be a king. But the charge is brought by the Jewish authorities.
They understand Jesus much better than Pilate did. To them He is a
blasphemer, who claims the place of God: for only God can be king
of Heaven.
Jesus could have proved He was King of Heaven by calling the legions of angels to fight for Him. But that was not the will of the Father. We are not forced to believe by signs and wonders and the intervention of the heavenly host. We are moved to faith by the love of God who offers Himself in sacrifice for us, entering into our nature and taking our sufferings on Himself, sharing even in our death so that we might share in His life. So God loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son to the end that all that believe in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. His love will not force itself upon us, but nor will it let us go, even when we flee from Him into sin and death. Even there He follows us, to bring us home. The consequence of such great love that the legions of angels stand
by in silent grief, veiling their faces and sheathing their swords
as the master and King of the Universe is condemned by the governor
of a small and unimportant province of a passing human state. |
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