Category Archive: Lent and Easter

• Stations of the Cross

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  Stay with me,
  remain here with me;
  watch and pray,
  watch and pray.

   

   

   

  We offer these scriptural stations of the cross
  as a means to enter the “abyss of wonders” of the cross of Christ.

  As you visit each station, take time for three movements:

  Behold:  Look upon each moment of your Lord’s journey with your true imagination.

  Speak:  Express the the cry of your heart that arises in response to Him.

  Listen:  Wait. Receive. Welcome the Holy Spirit to pray through you.

  The journey of the cross may stir your heart in many ways. Some possibilities to watch for:

  Identification

  As we embrace the Lord’s identification with our suffering, we are healed.
  His journey to the cross resonates with every human story,
  for He truly took upon Himself the burdens of the guilty, the poor, and the powerless.
  In these scenes we witness Him bearing all that would kill our souls and spirits:
  betrayal, accusation, injustice, abandonment, torture, degradation, mockery, shame, violation, physical agony, bitter grief, utter weakness, and the chasm of death itself.
  As He takes all the worst that evil can give, He has the victory.
  In this journey He breaks the bondage of sin and death over our race,
  and as we meditate on His cross today, its power is again let loose.

  Grieving over sin

  As we behold the Man, we may receive the gift of a broken heart.
  Let it break, for this is a suitable day to weep over our sin,
  the sin of our families, tribes, and nations, the sin of God’s people, and of the world.
  We are free to confess as the Spirit leads,
  “It was my sin that held Him there; it was our sin that held Him there.”
  As we confess, we cry out for God’s mercy and forgiveness, for ourselves and for all.

  Intercession for the poor

  Through His perfect obedience and righteous sacrifice,
  Christ continues to actively bear the pain that mankind could not and cannot escape.
  As we behold the Man through these stations,
  the Spirit may stir us to intercession.
  The power of His cross is active today
  for those preyed on by human evil,
  for victims of systemic injustice,
  for those living in material or spiritual poverty,
  and for the persecuted Church.

  Worshipping our crucified King

  Good Friday stands at the center of history,
  as the One who is lifted up draws all men to Him.
  Behold Christ’s humility, courage, and mercy on scandalous display
  as He entrusts Himself fully to His Father and pours out His very life.
  Here we find a love we can trust, worship, and adore,
  today and forever and ever.
  What language shall I borrow to thank thee, dearest Friend,
  for this, thy dying sorrow, thy pity without end?
  O make me thine forever; and should I fainting be,
  Lord, let me never, never outlive my love to thee.

  Are you ready? Begin here with the first station.

  If you’d like to circle back when finished and spend more time at a particular station, you can access them all here:

  First Station:  Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane

  Second Station:  Jesus betrayed by Judas and arrested

  Third Station:  Jesus is condemned by the Sanhedrin

  Fourth Station:  Jesus is denied by Peter

  Fifth Station:  Jesus is judged by Pilate

  Sixth Station:  Jesus is flogged and crowned with thorns

  Seventh Station:  Jesus carries the cross

  Eighth Station:  Simon helps Jesus carry his cross

  Ninth Station:  Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem

  Tenth Station:  Jesus is crucified

  Eleventh Station:  Jesus promises to remember thief

  Twelfth Station:  Jesus speaks with Mary and John

  Thirteenth Station:  Jesus dies on the cross

  Fourteenth Station:  Jesus is laid in the tomb

   

  Painting:  Rembrandt, 1634, Christ and His Disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane

• Fourteenth Station: Jesus is laid in the tomb

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  We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
  Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.

  Matthew 27: 57-60
  When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who also was a disciple of Jesus. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut in the rock. And he rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away.

   

   

   

  Painting: A.N. Mironov, 2013, The Lamentation Of Christ [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

• Thirteenth Station: Jesus dies on the cross

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  We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
  Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.

  Luke 23: 44-46
  It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun’s light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last.

   

   

   

  Painting: Giovanni Bellini, 1501, Crucifixion [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

  To the fourteenth station

• Twelfth Station: Jesus speaks with Mary and John

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  We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
  Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.

  John 19: 25-27
  but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.

   

   

   

  Painting: Josse Lieferinxe, 1500, Crucifixion [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

  To the thirteenth station

• Eleventh Station: Jesus promises to remember thief

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  We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
  Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.

  Luke 23: 39-43
  One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

   

   

   

  Painting: Jan Snellinck, 1597, The Crucifixion with the two thieves [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

  To the twelfth station

• Tenth Station: Jesus is crucified

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  We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
  Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.

  Luke 23: 33-34
  And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments.

   

   

   

  Painting: Leon Bonnat, 1874, Christ on the Cross [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

  To the eleventh station

• Ninth Station: Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem

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  We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
  Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.

  Luke 23: 27-31
  And there followed him a great multitude of the people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for him. But turning to them Jesus 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 nursed!’ Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?”

   

   

   

  Painting: Vicente Masip, 1517, Cristo con la cruz a cuestas [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

  To the tenth station

• Eighth Station: Simon helps Jesus carry his cross

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  We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
  Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.

  Mark 15: 16-21
  And the soldiers led him away inside the palace (that is, the governor’s headquarters), and they called together the whole battalion. And they clothed him in a purple cloak, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him. And they began to salute him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they were striking his head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling down in homage to him. 20 And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him. And they led him out to crucify him.
  And they compelled a passerby, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross.

   

   

   

  Painting: Giandomenico Tiepolo, 1745 -1749, Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry the cross [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

  To the ninth station

• Seventh Station: Jesus carries the cross

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  We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
  Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.

  John 19: 15-17

  They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.” So he delivered him over to them to be crucified.

   

   

   

  Painting: Sebastiano del Piombo, 1516, Christ Carrying the Cross [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

  To the eighth station

• Sixth Station: Jesus is flogged and crowned with thorns

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  We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
  Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.

   

  John 19: 1-3

  Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. 2 And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. 3 They came up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and struck him with their hands.

   

   

   

  Painting: Il Sodoma, 1540-1549, Christ Presented to the People (Ecce Homo) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

  To the seventh station

• Fifth Station: Jesus is judged by Pilate

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  We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
  Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.

  Mark 15: 1-5, 15
  And as soon as it was morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council. And they bound Jesus and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate. And Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” And he answered him, “You have said so.” And the chief priests accused him of many things. And Pilate again asked him, “Have you no answer to make? See how many charges they bring against you.” But Jesus made no further answer, so that Pilate was amazed.
  So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.

   

   

   

  Painting: Hans Multscher, 1437, Christ before Pilate (Wurzach altarpiece) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

  To the sixth station

• Fourth Station: Jesus is denied by Peter

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  We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
  Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.

  Matthew 26:69-75

  Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. And a servant girl came up to him and said, “You also were with Jesus the Galilean.” But he denied it before them all, saying, “I do not know what you mean.” And when he went out to the entrance, another servant girl saw him, and she said to the bystanders, “This man was with Jesus of Nazareth.” And again he denied it with an oath: “I do not know the man.” After a little while the bystanders came up and said to Peter, “Certainly you too are one of them, for your accent betrays you.” Then he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, “I do not know the man.” And immediately the rooster crowed. And Peter remembered the saying of Jesus, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly.

   

   

   

  Painting: Hendrick ter Brugghen, 1626-1629, The Denial of Saint Peter [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

  To the fifth station

• Third Station: Jesus is condemned by the Sanhedrin

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  We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
  Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.

  Luke 22: 66-71

  When day came, the assembly of the elders of the people gathered together, both chief priests and scribes. And they led him away to their council, and they said, “If you are the Christ, tell us.” But he said to them, “If I tell you, you will not believe, and if I ask you, you will not answer. But from now on the Son of Man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God.” So they all said, “Are you the Son of God, then?” And he said to them, “You say that I am.” Then they said, “What further testimony do we need? We have heard it ourselves from his own lips.”

   

   

   

  Painting: Nikolai Ge, 1892, The Judgment of the Sanhedrin: He is Guilty! [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

  To the fourth station

• Second Station: Jesus betrayed by Judas and arrested

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  We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
  Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.

   

  Mark 14:43-46

  And immediately, while he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders. Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “The one I will kiss is the man. Seize him and lead him away under guard.” And when he came, he went up to him at once and said, “Rabbi!” And he kissed him. And they laid hands on him and seized him.

   

   

   

  Painting: Eilif Peterssen, 1878, Judas Iscariot [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

  To the third station

• First Station: Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane

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  We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
  Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.

  Matthew 26:36-41

  Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch[a] with me.” And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

   

   

  Painting: Vasily Perov, 1878, Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

  To the second station

• Meditations on Wholeness in Christ: True Repentance

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  To you I lift up my eyes,
  O you who are enthroned in the heavens!
  Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master,
  as the eyes of a maidservant to the hands of her mistress,
  so our eyes look to the Lord our God,
  till he has mercy on us.
  Have mercy upon us, O Lord,
  have mercy upon us,
  for we have had more than enough of contempt.
  Psalm 123:1-3 ESV

  In this introspective age, we easily substitute our subjective feelings about ourselves for the objective gift of God’s forgiveness. If we are on our knees, hating ourselves, we are not likely to look up and receive forgiveness. We have sunk into an inculcated, emotional state of feeling toward the self, an emotional view we’ve had so long we hardly notice it. And this is not prayer. It is a common and serious barrier to receiving the forgiving grace of God. [1]

  Lent is a sober season, but also one that can yield great joy. We may resist a full embrace of Lent if diseased introspection is contaminating our confessional. An aversion to repentance grows where we’ve confused it with self-loathing and regretful ruminating over our weaknesses and mistakes. There is neither doom nor shame in true Christian repentance. As we lift our faces to the Father of all mercy, the restoration and freedom He gives scandalizes our self-hatred. Confessional prayer offered unto God ushers in a mysterious joy as we simultaneously face the heartbreaking extent of our need for Christ’s sacrifice, and the unfathomable depth of God’s kindness towards us.

  PRAYER:
  Come Holy Spirit, come. Search us and illuminate any way that introspection is corrupting our experience of repentance. Remove from our hearts any cruel judge or merciless punisher who blocks our view of You. Create a cleansed and kind space within where we can receive Your merciful illumination. Flood our hearts with Your love so they can be tenderly broken. We praise you for the objective reality of forgiveness that both transcends and descends to us.

  [1] Leanne Payne, Restoring the Christian Soul Through Healing Prayer (Grand Rapids, Baker Books, 1991), 146.
  Painting: Jacob Jordaens, 1623, An Apostle [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
  Meditation prepared by Sarah Colyn, drawing on the writings and ministry of Leanne Payne.

• Come, Lord Jesus!

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  “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
  Matthew 28:20

  The oldest liturgical prayer that we know about is a command prayer, or prayer of invocation…

  “Come, Lord Jesus!”

  The early Christians must have shouted this prayer aloud with great fervor, knowing that He, their risen Lord, would by His Spirit be present to them in a most special way again…

  Where the Presence of the Lord is truly invoked, there is little difficulty in believing on Him or moving in the spiritual power and authority He brings.[1]

  How do we truly invoke His presence?  In faith, yes, but not a whipped-up confidence in one’s enthusiasm or certainty. We invoke Him in humility, small ones welcoming the great I AM.  Our call is born of hunger and dependence.  Our prayer is worshipful, moved by awe and adoration.  It is a loving reach in relationship, a bid toward Him who is with us.  In this invocation we engage the mystery of ultimate reality, passing from explanation to Incarnation.  We call on the One we have seen, touched and leaned against.  And, we call on the One we apprehend only by belief, thanking Him for the inexplicable gift of faith.  We learn this prayer by praying it, and just like His first disciples, we become as we look to Him, enabling those around us to do the same.

  PRAYER

  Come, Lord Jesus!

   

  [1] Leanne Payne, The Healing Presence (Grand Rapids, Baker Books, 1989), 49.
  Painting: James Tissot, 1886, The Appearance of Christ at the Cenacle, [Public domain] via Wikimedia Commons

   

• Practicing the Presence

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  Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering,
  for he who promised is faithful.
  And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,
  not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some,
  but encouraging one another,
  and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
  Hebrews 10:23-25

  After our Lord’s death and resurrection, the early Christians came together knowing that He would meet with them in a special way once again. Rather than going *to* church (their minds were not clouded with the notion that buildings or organizational structures were the Church), they came together *as* the Church to fellowship in His Presence.

  And we might say they “practiced the Presence” in a number of ways or modes. “Christ has died, Christ is risen,” part of the earliest liturgy, was in some of their hearts an incredible *remembered* experience.  Memories of lives shared together in the breaking of bread, in long journeys, and in the teaching of multitudes must have been vivid ones for many. Beyond memories of Christ’s presence, however, they knew by virtue of His Spirit descending on them at Pentecost that He was always present, indwelling them.  In yet a third way, pertinent to what we are here considering, these early disciples knew that when they invoked Him, Christ would “come again” by His Spirit as they gathered to worship, hear the Word, and break bread (make Eucharist) together.  [1]

  Sharing in worship and the sacraments and journeying together as prayer partners are acts of faith in which we, like the early Christians, know our Lord will meet us.  Pursuing fellowship with one another in Christ, we reject the consumer mindset and religious counterfeits for the sake of being encountered by the Risen One, the Objective Real.  Persevering in His body is our joy and privilege, a blessed act of will by which we cultivate the virtue of hope.

  PRAYER

  Holy God, thank You for how You center Yourself in Your people.  Thank you for Your dynamic, living Presence among us.  Thank you for making Yourself known in the breaking of bread. Lord, I ask for an increase of faith that will empower me to live with joy and peaceful expectancy as a member of Your body.  I invite You to illuminate any barriers, any unforgiveness or idolatry that is dulling my heart.  Enable me to grow in maturity and freedom to celebrate Your risen Presence in Your Church.

  [1] Leanne Payne, The Healing Presence (Grand Rapids, Baker Books, 1989), 48.
  Painting: 3^rdc., mural of agape feast from the Catacombe di Priscilla [Public domain] via Wikimedia Commons

• Receiving Resurrection Life

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  If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above,
  where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
  Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
  For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
  When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
  Colossians 3:1-4 ESV

  The way of the Cross stands always against the various ways man devises to earn his own salvation, his own ticket to the Utter East.  And on that way we experience the ongoing efficacy of the Cross. We are being redeemed, and no static understanding of the reception of the Novitas or the Holy Spirit should bar us from continuing to receive. [1]

  

  The Church celebrates Easter not just on one day, but with a seven-week season that calls us to rejoice in our risen Lord and His resurrection life. He is risen today, and we take our places in His resurrection right now, and again right now, and again right now.   The newness of Christ’s life (novitas) is active here in His beloved world in this present moment, ours to appropriate and share. Confessing, “Christ is risen!” delivers us from the dual temptations of humanistic self-help on the one hand and cynical despair on the other. The stories of our redemption should be so much more than stale testimonies of some long-ago decision for Christ. Let us look in expectation and wonder as His Cross has its way in our lives today.

  PRAYER

  Lord Jesus Christ, Redeemer of the world, I lift my eyes to You. I praise You in Your glorified body, seated at the right hand of the Father. I thank You that Your divine energy, Your resurrection power, is at work in me and through me.  I confess that I need Your ongoing redemptive work within me and that I long to see redemption in the world around me.  Strengthen me in the virtue of hope all through this Easter season as I proclaim that You are risen. Alleluia!

   

   

  [1] Leanne Payne, Real Presence (Grand Rapids, Hamewith Books, 1995), p. 94
  Painting:  Rembrandt,1638, Christ and St Mary Magdalene at the Tomb. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
  Meditation prepared by Sarah Colyn, drawing on the books and ministry of Leanne Payne

   

• In Babylon but of Christ

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  O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you,
  I know you, and these know that you have sent me.
  I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known,
  that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.
  John 17:25-26

  Lent is to remind us that it is all too easy to settle in here, to warn us that perhaps a “crippling wordliness” has indeed overtaken us…

  This is what the Lenten Scripture readings and teachings are meant to correct in us.  They would teach us how we can live in the midst of Babylon and not be destroyed by it, even as Christ prayed:

  My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.  They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.
  John 17:15-16 [1]

  We are awesomely privileged people, chosen by God out of the world to be His.  With this privilege comes responsibility:  our loving Father keeps us in the world so that all may know His love for them.  When we fear, follow, or join the world we lose our potency because we lose our oneness with God, His people, and our true selves.  Lent is a needful, yearly gift.  It is a time when we engage in disciplines that remind us of our not-of-this-world-ness. And it is a time when we invite the Holy Spirit to show us the ways the world has wooed us, cowed us, or numbed us. We kneel that we might rise in joy as those who are kept, guarded, sanctified and sent by Jesus.

  PRAYER
  Come Holy Spirit, illuminate my heart. Show me any accommodation I’ve made to the ways of this world.  Search me and know me, merciful God.  Where have I deceived myself, justifying that which draws me away from You?  What habit, allegiance, or indulgence are you calling me out of that I might be one with You and my brothers and sisters in You? Lord, give me knowledge and power for full repentance.  Let this Holy Week be a time of full return to You, that I may be a potent witness of Your love to the world.

   

  [1] Leanne Payne, Restoring the Christian Soul Through Healing Prayer (Grand Rapids, Baker Books, 1991), 226.
  Painting:  Duccio di Buoninsegna, 1308-1311, Christ Taking Leave of the Apostles [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
  Meditation prepared by Sarah Colyn, drawing on the writings and ministry of Leanne Payne