Station Eight: Jesus Speaks to the Women

photo by maherite

"But Jesus turning to them said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, stop weeping for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children."
  --Luke 23.28 NIV

Jesus struggles from the second fall. He is on the road again. It is still a long journey to Calvary. With the pain and the uphill climb—he must have thought it would take forever. And maybe it would have unless there was this Eighth Station. He heard them even before he passed them. The daughters of Jerusalem. Weeping...weeping for Jesus, for the wrongness of the world, for the injustice of their own lives. If this could happen to one so good—and even to a man—what could their daughters expect?

So much of religious has tried to push women into a less than equal place. Paul’s old words about women being subjected to men. If they wanted to know anything ask their husbands. Women were not smart enough or have the right to teach male children. They would wear burkas. Their faces and heads were to be covered. They would be denied the right to vote. They cannot attend school even now in some foreign lands. Malala told us in her book about what happens when a young woman dares to try to read and know and dream and be. Lilly Ledbetter way down in Gadsden, Alabama dared to raise the question of why women were not paid the same as men in the tire company where she worked. Even today politicians piously explain why they cannot vote for a bill that would equal pay for all—not just men.

And in the Stations women must weep as they follow this journey up the hill. But they also must smile at Jesus’ mother, dear Veronica and now the daughters of Jerusalem. For this Gospel and this Jesus left no one out—not even the women--especially the women.

Remember what Jesus said as he shuffled past them with his cross. “”Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.”  Even today the tears of the daughters of Jerusalem have yet to be dried.

photo by justinvandyke / flickr