The Walk of Sorrow: A Good Friday Reflection
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"Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us’” (Matthew 1:23).
The Via Dolorosa, an actual place in Israel, commemorates Jesus final steps on earth before His crucifixion. Translated into English, it means “Walk of Sorrow.” The events memorialized represent the cost of our eternal freedom. Spring is the season we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection, but His journey to the cross began before angels sang of His birth on earth. The apostle John wrote:
“In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1).
In the beginning, God’s redemptive plan of rescue was already in play. Jesus said He came not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. Christ Jesus exists throughout the entirety of the Bible. The following scenes, marked along the Walk of Sorrow, remind us of the sacrifice Jesus fully felt, and chose to make, on our behalf.
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Condemned to Die
Fully God and fully man. Jesus’ mother Mary, and best friend, the apostle John, watched the entire scene unfold. Innocent but aware, Jesus obediently began His walk to the cross. John recorded:
“’Away with him,’ they yelled. ‘Away with Him! Crucify him!’
‘What? Crucify your king?’ Pilate asked.
‘We have no king but Caesar,’ the leading priests shouted back.
Then Pilate turned Jesus over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus away”(John 19:15-17a).
They took Mary’s Son. They took John’s best friend. Jesus willingly went, because He knew it was His Father’s will. He picked up the cross and walked on.
“Carrying the cross by Himself, he went to the place of the Skull (in Hebrew, Golgotha)” (John 19:17b).
Under the weight of the wooden cross, Jesus began to drag all of our sins with Him. It was hard. In our everyday lives, we often have a difficult time releasing the ultimate authority of our lives to the Lord, alone. We struggle to give Him control. It’s nearly impossible to trust Him in times of injustice, unfairness, and suffering. It’s hard.
Simon of Cyrene Carried the Cross for Jesus
“Along the way, they came across a man named Simon, who was from Cyrene, and the soldiers forced him to carry Jesus’ cross” (Matthew 27:32).
Jesus was too weak to carry the cross another dust-shuffling step. Simon stepped in to carry it for Him. Fully man, Jesus understands weakness. Though fully God, Paul explained in his letter to the Philippians:
“Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:6-11).
When we feel crushed under the weight of our cross, Jesus is there carrying it with us. He knows how we feel. We are never alone.
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Sorrow at the Sight
“A large crowd trailed behind, including many grief-stricken women” (Luke 23:27).
I doubt it was only the righteous women weeping at the sight of the pain their Lord was in. When we see another in pain, the empathy and compassion that is the very likeness of God built into the fabric of who we are activates. Life within the love of Christ Jesus means we hurt when others hurt.
“’Daughters of Jerusalem,’ Jesus said to them, ‘don’t weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children’” (Luke 23:27-28).
His pain encompassed the wreckage of sin in the world, under which we are all suffer on this earth. Paul reminded the Romans in his letter, not one of us is worthy. We are loved by our Creator, but suffer together under the curse of sin in this world. We feel real sorrow and righteous anger for the suffering and injustice in the world.
The Savior Is Stripped
“When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they divided his clothes among the four of them. They also took his robe, but it was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom” (John 19:23).
Psalm 22:18 says: “They divide my garments among themselves and throw dice for my clothing.” This is one of many fulfillments of prophecy as Jesus walked the cross to Golgotha.
The definition of stripped is having a covering removed. Christ Jesus chose to forgo the power of being fully God in order to fully rescue His fellow man for generations to come. His loss was our literal gain. His suffering made a way for us to return to the presence of God despite our constant struggle with sin.
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Nailed to the Cross
“There they nailed him to the cross. Two others were crucified with him, one on either side, with Jesus between them” (John 19:18).
Suffering is difficult to endure, and also heart-wrenching to watch. When children suffer, parents will go to the literal end of themselves to stop the pain. The defeat when nothing can be done to cure or comfort others is deafening. As they nailed Jesus to the cross, His mom watched them brutally nail the sweet babe the angels sang into the world, to a cross. John watched His best friend endure horrific pain, and heard the sounds of the nails being driven in.
When we endure pain in this life, Jesus is with us. He understands, empathizes, and has compassion on us. We are never alone in our torment and suffering. The author of Hebrews wrote:
“This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin” (Hebrews 4:15).
Jesus Breathed His Last Breath
“Jesus knew that his mission was now finished, and to fulfill Scripture he said, ‘I am thirsty,’ A jar of sour wine was sitting there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put it on a hyssop branch, and held it up to his lips. When Jesus had tasted it, he said, ‘It is finished!’ Then he bowed his head and gave up His spirit” (John 19:28-30).
He gave up His spirit freely.
Christ Jesus did not have to be obedient to His Father’s will. He chose to be. In choosing to release His last breath on earth, He chose us. Before we breathed our first breath on this earth, He took our name to the cross. Paul wrote to the Corinthians:
“For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
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Jesus Taken Down from the Cross
“When they came to Jesus, they saw that he was already dead, so they didn’t break his legs. One of the soldiers, however, pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water flowed out. (This report is from an eyewitness giving an accurate account. He speaks the truth so that you also may continue to believe.) These things happened in fulfillment of the Scriptures that say, ‘Not one of his bones will be broken,’ and ‘They will look on the one they pierced’” (John 19:33-37).
Jesus is the Living Word of God. His bones were not broken, proving He was the Lamb of God. Exodus 12:46 speaks of the Passover lamb:
"It must be eaten inside the house; take none of the meat outside the house. Do not break any of the bones.”
The Lord is faithful to keep every promise in our lives. Nothing is too minute a detail for the Lord of Heaven to rush to our aid!
Jesus Was Laid to Rest
“Following the Jewish burial custom, they wrapped Jesus’ body with the spices in long sheets of linen cloth. The place of crucifixion was near a garden, where there was a new tomb …they laid Jesus there” (John 19:40-42).
The Walk of Sorrow is a place to reflect on the suffering Christ went through for all of us. The Bible tells us over and over “…remember.” John concluded his Gospel account:
“Jesus also did many other things. If they were all written down, I suppose the whole world could not contain the books that would be written.”
The human pain of loss is unspeakable. The hope we have in Jesus did not dim and darken under the painful loss on the cross, nor does it under the crushing pressures of this world. The stone was rolled away, and eternal life has been ushered in.
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