He Bore the Cross--2nd Station of the Cross

"Jesus was led away,
and carrying the cross by himself,
went out to what is called the Place 
   of the Skull."
     --John 19.17

We come today to the second station of the cross. We all know the word, station. It is a place to pause on a journey. It is a moment when we can rest a spell. Sometimes a station is a place to ask directions or to buy a ticket or simply to make sure you are in the right spot. The Stations of the Cross have provided pilgrims through the years with a chance to ponder the mystery of the greatest story ever told.


In the first station—Jesus stood before Pilate. He had been scourged which was a terrible punishment. Pilate commanded the soldiers to drag the beaten Jesus so the crowd could see him. Pilate said: “Behold the man.” And listening to those words was the first station for a pilgrim.


So Jesus’ case was heard and sentence was pronounced at that time: “You will go to the cross.” At that moment the soldiers came again with the top of the cross—not the whole cross—just the crossbeam. They placed the heavy beam on Jesus’ shoulders. And the long, hard walk began. Before him an officer would walk with a placard on which was written the charges for the crime for which he was to die. And the church has called this second station: He bore the cross.”


Isaiah had said, years before, “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, upon him was the chastisement that made us whole. And with his stripes we are healed.”


H. Wheeler Robinson understood Isaiah’s word when he told story that one day he stopped into a cathedral to hear the choir rehearsing that gorgeous twenty-third portion of the Mass. “Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world, have mercy upon me.” Robinson said that standing behind him in the shadows was a man who stood looking agitated and very distraught. And as the choir sang, “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, have mercy upon me,” the man began to whisper and moan louder and louder, “Oh God, Oh God if he only could. If only he could!” And with that the man ran out of the church and Robinson never saw him again.

The second station says that he bore our cross. He really did take the sins of the world upon his shoulders. He bore our griefs and carried our sorrows. Carlyle Marney used to say that the dream has always been the same since time began. We carved our hopes on walls; we painted our longings with crude brushes in caves. We whispered it again and again. The dream never changed: that somehow, somewhere, sometime, one would come to take our sins away. Someone would come who would be good enough and great enough and strong enough and clean enough to free us from all the things that cripple us and chain us down. The longing has always been the same: For someone who can pardon and forgive and release and help us to put all that awful stuff behind us and begin again.

So this is the second station. He bore our sins. And in that journey which begins again this Lenten season—we remember the word Savior. And we know the word is for us. Thanks be to God.

"Christ nailed up might be more

than a symbol of all pain.

He might in very truth

contain all pain.

And a man standing
on a hilltop

with his arms outstretched,

a symbol of a symbol,

he too might be a reservoir

of all the pain that ever was."

--John Steinbeck