The Way of Suffering: Stations of the Cross

Lenten Exhibition 2021

For two thousand years, Christians have made pilgrimages to Jerusalem to walk the path that Christ walked on the way to His crucifixion. About 400 years after His resurrection, the Church began to recreate that path in their own towns and villages; this became known as the Stations of the Cross.

We enter this Lenten season after a year of great collective suffering in the world. We grieve, we are weary, and we long for the day when every tear shall be wiped away – yet there is comfort in knowing that we are not alone. Jesus knows our suffering, He knows our sorrows, and He invites us to walk with Him. We pray these meditations will be a blessing to you as you walk through and process your own sufferings and sorrows.

Station 1: Jesus is condemned to death

Bev Harstad

“He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth.” – Isaiah 53:7

“Fixing our eyes on Jesus … who for the joy set before Him endured the cross … ” – Hebrews 12:2

The piece is acrylic and oil on wood panel with bark, with a little wood burning. My thought was that Christ was focused on facing the cross for our salvation.

Station 2: Christ takes up His cross

Eric Kaufman

Mixed media. Acrylic, graphite and glass on board.

This piece is an abstraction exploring what it means for Jesus, the God-man to take up his cross. The mirror on the first cross invites us as viewers to participate in the event and to consider what it means to take up our own crosses as we follow Jesus.

Station 3: Jesus falls the first time

Caleigh Taylor

On this station of the cross, I wanted to focus on how every moment, while painful, was leading to the beautiful holy redemption of the cross. Jesus knew that every step was intended to humiliate and offend, but instead led to irreplaceable beauty.

Station 4: Jesus meets His mother

“Pieta” by A. Crawford, design by S. Wetterling

This poem begins as a meditation on how Mary theotokos might help us better understand that enigmatic declaration of Paul’s in 1 Timothy 2:15: “Women will be saved through childbearing.” The experience of childbirth is so like a kind of death and the cross of Christ is so like a birth. This poem considers how that juxtaposition may have helped Mary, and us, endure faithfully to the end.

Station 5: Simon of Cyrene carries the cross for Jesus

“Simon of Cyrene” by Jeffrey Allen Mays

Very little is known about Simon of Cyrene, but he and his family make appearances elsewhere in the New Testament so they must have become followers of Christ in the aftermath of the crucifixion. It seems likely to me that he was not a follower of Christ when he was forced to carry the cross for Jesus. My piece tries to get in his head as he reflects back on that day.

Station 6: Veronica wipes Jesus’ face

“Veronica’s Veil” by Billy Hollis

Oil on Wood
Many pictures of Veronica focus on the face of Christ captured on her veil in blood. I wanted to paint a picture focused on her hands and veil, the tools she used in her brave and compassionate choice to show mercy to Jesus. She came as she was, with what she had. I imagine a teenager amidst a maddening crowd, scary Roman soldiers, the dust, the chaos. She took a great risk. To approach Jesus was not just an act of compassion, it was also an act of defiance.

Station 7: Jesus falls for the second time

Rachel Hillebrand

Acrylic & ink on wood.
As someone very internationally-minded, I immediately knew I wanted to depict this tender moment when Jesus, who had fallen for the second time, was stooped over under the crushing weight of the rough hewn wooden beams of the Cross, and while paused for a second of time, was able to simultaneously see every single one of us who ever been born on the earth, while also being able to see the epochs of struggles we would encounter, including this era of being impacted by a global pandemic. It brings a lot of reassurance that He has never once been caught off-guard by an event. He was the world’s Advocate then and now. Inspired by multiple church art styles but updated to reflect present day, Jesus looks upward at us, rather than downward because he is Hope and Connection.

Station 8: the women of Jerusalem weep over Jesus

“Postcards” by Rachel Spies

“Postcards” is an epistolary series between an unknown author and a created priest concerning the eighth station of the Stations of the Cross. It is a reimagining of the concerns of the women weeping at the feet of Jesus, who instead of grieving about the impending crucifixion are grieving over the injustices that disproportionately impact women, such as poverty, climate, crime, misogyny, and family. The piece deals with detemporalization, or the idea that the women are both with Jesus as well as throughout time, as well as the Lenten theme of mourning.

Station 9: Jesus falls the third time

“Pneuma” by a Christ Church parishioner

This written reflection examines the significance of our Lord having fallen three separate times on the road to his last breath. It explores the past year’s global tragedies as reverberations of the original fall, reminding us that our Lord, too, experienced for Himself the totality of our world’s expiration.

Station 10: Jesus is stripped of His garments

writing and art by Jodi Grant, frame by Ben Grant

This was first intended to be a written piece, but as I thought about how Jesus was publicly undressed, I wanted a way to convey his shame and humiliation not only with words but also visually, because it is with the eyes that we detect nudity. I wanted to do so in a way that was not crude, but conveyed how he must have felt as he was mocked, and how we would have felt if we had watched him being stripped of his garments. I also wanted to capture the shock that we feel when we see fellow humans oppressed and violated through nudity.

Station 11: Jesus is nailed to the cross

“It is Finished” by Cheryl Kaufman

My painting is inspired by the “Arezzo Crucifix” by the medieval Italian painter Cimabue, (ca. 1268-1271). In turn, Cimabue likely was inspired by the Italian painter Giunta Pisano who painted in the 1240s. Throughout the centuries, the life and death of Christ has inspired life and art for all the races of men for which he died.

Station 12: Jesus dies on the cross

“Man of Sorrows” by Stef Powell

The verse below my painting is Isaiah 53:3,4 (The Passion Translation). Meditating on this verse and Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me,” I aimed to intermingle the beautiful sacrifice and suffering of our Saviour with our own co-crucifixion through His death. A mystery full of grace and power. My hope through my work is that God will be glorified (what a wonder!) and truth revealed. This painting is watercolor and pencil. Abundant thanks and love to Sarah and Michael Lynton for the photography, script work, and support given me on this project.