Today is the first day of Lent. This is an important period in the liturgical calendar for remembering the Passion of Jesus. Here is a collection of photos that we took together as a family last year, challenging ourselves to find something in nature that reminds us of each of the Stations of the Cross. We offer it to you here, wishing that in some way it might become a devotional aid to you.

This first image is not properly a 'station,' but is Aubrey's impression of the Way itself. Imagine Jesus walking along it on the way to the cross.

First Station: The Last Supper

These flowers are common in our area. The cluster suggests the comfort of friends together, something all too easily taken for granted until it is the 'last' time. Photo by Darren.

Second Station: The Agony in the Garden

Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, "Sit here while I go over there and pray." He took along Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to feel sorrow and distress. Then he said to them, "My soul is sorrowful even to death. Remain here and keep watch with me." He advanced a little and fell prostrate in prayer, saying, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet, not as I will, but as you will." When he returned to his disciples he found them asleep. He said to Peter, "So you could not keep watch with me for one hour? Watch and pray that you may not undergo the test. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Matthew 25:36-41).

This picture, taken by Deborah, depicts the way fear and anxiety will have eaten away at the insides of the Lord, long before he will have faced any physical discomfort.

Third Station: Jesus Before the Sanhedrin

When day came the council of elders of the people met, both chief priests and scribes, and they brought him before their Sanhedrin. They said, "If you are the Messiah, tell us," but he replied to them, "If I tell you, you will not believe, and if I question, you will not respond. But from this time on the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God." They all asked, "Are you then the Son of God?" He replied to them, "You say that I am." Then they said, "What further need have we for testimony? We have heard it from his own mouth" (Luke 22: 66-71).

Jesus comes before a judiciary that simply hasn't a category for his virtue and vibrancy. He is simultaneously restrained and bursts through the restrictive categories of their righteousness. Photo by Darren.

Fourth Station: The Scourging and Crowning with Thorns

Then Pilate took Jesus and had him scourged. And the soldiers wove a crown out of thorns and placed it on his head, and clothed him in a purple cloak, and they came to him and said,"Hail, King of the Jews!" And they struck him repeatedly (John 19: 1-3).

Jesus was beaten and disfigured for our benefit. Photo by Deborah.


Fifth Station: Jesus Receives His Cross

When the chief priests and the guards saw [Jesus] they cried out, "Crucify him, crucify him!" Pilate said to them, "Take him yourselves and crucify him. I find no guilt in him." ... They cried out, "Take him away, take him away! Crucify him!" Pilate said to them, "Shall I crucify your king?" The chief priests answered, "We have no king but Caesar." Then he handed him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus, and carrying the cross himself he went out to what is called the Place of the Skull, in Hebrew, Golgotha (John 19: 6, 15-17).

This is the first picture that Aubrey took. And I thought it was kind of random. But I asked him, 'Why did you take that picture.' And he said, 'Because it reminds me of how heavy the cross was.' I was encouraged to see him so engaging the exercise at the age of four.

Sixth Station: Jesus Falls Under the Weight of the Cross

This is the only 'traditional' station that we have included in our version of the passion; there is no biblical passage for this event, but it so evocative of the suffering that Jesus went through. Jesus bore our sickness and sin in his body to the point of breaking. Photo by Darren.

Seventh Station: Simon of Cyrene Carries the Cross for Jesus

They pressed into service a passer-by, Simon, a Cyrenian, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross (Mark 15: 21).

Sometimes the support we can lend one another is almost menial, but it can make a profound difference. Photo by Deborah.

Eighth Station: Jesus Meets the Pious Women of Jerusalem

A large crowd of people followed Jesus, including many women who mourned and lamented him. Jesus turned to them and said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep instead for yourselves and for your children, for indeed, the days are coming when people will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed.' At that time, people will say to the mountains, ‘Fall upon us!' and to the hills, ‘Cover us!' for if these things are done when the wood is green what will happen when it is dry? (Luke 23: 27-31)

This photo by Darren is of some of the popular piety of the day in the Philippines. One of the things that strikes me about Jesus is the way he honors even our meager piety.

Ninth Station: Jesus is Nailed to the Cross

When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him and the criminals there, one on his right, the other on his left (Luke 23: 33).

This photo by Deborah graphically portrays the brutality of the nails used to kill our Lord.

Tenth Station: The Repentant Thief

Now one of the criminals hanging there reviled Jesus, saying, "Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us." The other, however, rebuking him, said in reply, "Have you no fear of God, for you are subject to the same condemnation? And indeed, we have been condemned justly, for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes, but this man has done nothing criminal." Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." He replied to him, "Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise" (Luke 23: 39-43).

There are two possible position for us in a situation of crisis: either we are leaning toward those around us, or we are leaning away. Sometime our angle of repose can make all the difference. Contrast this picture with the next one depicting Jesus, Mary and John, huddled into one another in their hour of despair. Photo by Darren.

Eleventh Station: Mary and John at the Foot of the Cross

Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, "Woman, behold, your son." Then he said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother." And from that hour the disciple took her into his home (John 19: 25-27).

Photo by Darren.

Twelfth Station: Jesus Dies on the Cross

It was now about noon and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon because of an eclipse of the sun. Then the veil of the temple was torn down the middle. Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit"; and when he had said this he breathed his last (Luke 23: 44-46).
Isaiah says, 'He was cut off out of the land of the living' (53:8). Photo by Deborah.

Thirteenth Station: Jesus is Laid in the Tomb

When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph, who was himself a disciple of Jesus. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus; then Pilate ordered it to be handed over. Taking the body, Joseph wrapped it [in] clean linen and laid it in his new tomb that he had hewn in the rock. Then he rolled a huge stone across the entrance to the tomb and departed (Matthew 27: 57-60).

Photo by Deborah.

Fourteenth Station: Jesus Rises from Death

It's maybe not surprising that the most miraculous part of Jesus' passion is the easiest to photograph. Anywhere we see new life emerging out of death we see the power of Jesus over the tomb. Photo by Darren.