Jesus Dies on the Cross

Mark 15:33-37 When noon came, darkness fell on the whole countryside and lasted until midafternoon. At that time Jesus cried in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" A few of the bystanders who heard it remarked, "Listen! He is calling on Elijah!" Someone ran off, and soaking a sponge in sour wine, stuck it on a reed to try to make him drink. The man said, "Now let's see whether Elijah comes to take him down." Then Jesus, uttering a loud cry, breathed his last.

"This is paradoxically Jesus' hour of glory and his hour of emptying out all that he is in love and in mercy, for us--for all of us, enemies and friends, pulled together into the unity of God. This is life and death that is filled with grace and power for those who have the eyes to see and the ears to hear what is happening. The impossible is happening--God is dying with us for us and into us so that we will live and not die the death of sin and evil.

... Jesus dies, and something happens, and the world will never be the same again.

...Now it is time for us to die. Time to be stilled and quieted. Time to listen to the stillness after the cry and let the Spirit of the Crucified One speak to us. And then, with Jesus, it is time to die, to gather our life, to gather all that we hold dear and give it back to the One who made us. "Father, into your hands I give my spirit."

excerpt from "The New Stations of the Cross" by Megan McKenna