They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him. – Matthew 27:30-31

With yesterday being Good Friday, Rebekah and I decided to take time in the afternoon to go through the Calvary Episcopalian Church “Stations of the Cross” meditation path that runs through the intimate beauty of the churchyard.

The discipline takes the form of a cleverly designed and interactive walk, beginning at the North Gate. Each station features both a beautiful crafted exhibit and a QR code linked to a series of prayers and observations read by Calvary’s rector, Rev. Stephen Mazingo.

For us, the timing was perfect. Rebekah and I have been reading daily devotions through Lent’s 40 days, then – after Palm Sunday services last weekend – we sought to lean into the solemnity and gravitas of Holy Week.

Maundy Thursday’s communion service at Howard Memorial set the tone for the cross. Then Friday’s slow meander through Calvary’s churchyard, guided by the meditations, kept our focus exactly where it needed to be.

What I would like to do here is to outline the eight stations then simply share my photographs, in order, so that you too can take a meditative pilgrimage through the historic gardens.

• I – Jesus is condemned to death. The bowl symbolic of Pilate washing his hands and (like us) ducking responsibility.
• II – Jesus takes up his cross. This is not a full-sized cross. I have carried one closer to the size Jesus must have been forced to drag through the streets of Jerusalem and I can attest to this: it takes everything you have to take up a cross.
• III – Christ’s Cross is shouldered by Simon of Cyrene. By showing compassion Simon put himself at risk. But love overcomes fear.
• IV – Jesus encounters the women of Jerusalem. The beautifully crafted droplets hanging from the trees represent “the tears of Mary.”
• V – Jesus is stripped of his garments. But rather than humiliation and indignity, Jesus models humility and the glory of surrender.
• VI – Jesus is nailed to the cross. The brutality of the cross is hard to contemplate. The love that Jesus shows brings me to my knees.
• VII – Jesus is offered a sponge filled with sour wine. “It is completed,” he cries. “It is finished.” Then he dies.
• VIII – Jesus is laid in the tomb. The juxtaposition, adjacent to where Calvary Church keeps all the refuse, is not lost on me. The authorities wanted to consign Jesus to the scrapheap of history (many victims of Roman execution were simply thrown into the trash). But a wealthy follower places Jesus in a garden tomb.

In Catholic tradition there are 14 stations. But the way these 8 stations are laid out in the Calvary churchyard does a good job of covering the key content of the events of Good Friday.

The point – and also my point in writing this post – is to guide us through Christ’s experience and to help us pause long enough to make sure we are doing more than paying lip-service to this pivotal event in Holy Week.

I am not interested in unpacking the details of the brutality and the horror of the day. But I am very much committed to understanding the lengths to which Jesus went in order to offer life to me, and to humbly bear witness to the power of real love.

Jesus lived a life of such goodness and faithfulness, that his invitation for us to be reconciled with God – and to follow the ways of grace, mercy, humility, goodness, healing, peace, light, justice and love – proved too much of a threat to the status quo.

Christ’s Way is still dangerous to those who wield power. Dare we honor such sacrifice and follow him still? – DEREK

follow the path through the garden: