The finality of Pilate's words seared Jesus' soul: sentenced to die by crucifixion, a criminal's death. Only hours earlier, in the stark loneliness of Gethsemane, Jesus accepted without reservation all that his Father would ask of him, 'Not my will, but yours be done.' Fear-filled but composed, Jesus embraced the sentence and so fulfilled his years in the loving surrender of his life.

 Gethsemane fear becomes cold reality as Jesus feels the heavy beam of the cross on his beaten shoulders. What was only fear now begins to be actual pain. This burden also leaves no doubt that crucifixion is unavoidable. Whatever anticipation there may have been about his fate will now, over the next few hours, dissolve into naked reality. Jesus will accept each phase of his execution as it comes. His heart, strained with love and pain, is open to all that will follow on this path to Calvary.

As often as we contemplate the weakened, weary Jesus falling to the dust, we focus on the pain of collapsing under the heavy wood and suffering still more bruises. What was most difficult and painful, in fact, was getting up. Although he was cajoled and even whipped into rising to reassume his cross and continue toward Calvary, Jesus had to rely on inner strength, on his character and motivation, to go on.

The sensitive, wrenching moment when Jesus' eyes met his mother's was part of his bereavement, not hers. She would soon grieve over the loss of her son, but now, the grief was his. One of Jesus' followers betrayed him; another denied he knew him; the rest abandoned Jesus when his need was the greatest. Except for his mother Mary and John, Jesus was alone.

'Why me?' Jesus heard the angry protest over the noise of the crowd. In his pain he didn't pay attention to it until a soldier brought Simon over to him. Then he understood. As Simon walked along the narrow street, he was pressed to the side to make way for the faltering Jesus and the soldiers. Just then, one of the soldiers insisted that Simon help the condemned man. 'Whu should I be chosen for this indignity? Why not somebody else? It's not fair!' Simon objected. Jesus understood how he felt, as Simon, for a time, took the weight of the crossbeam on his shoulders.

Not many of Jesus' friends were around since his arrest the night before. Where were those who cheered him and laid palms in his path only days earlier? Now when it was safer not to recognise Jesus or show concern for him, Veronica steps out of the crowd to wipe his face. Did it feel cool and refresh Jesus, or did nt sting  his bloodied face? Either way, Jesus saw the compassionate heart that prompted her acr and was grateful for it.

Wouldn't it be understandable for Jesus to become immersed in his own suffering and fear as he falls again amid the street throng? 'Who cares about these people, about Simon and Veronica who helped me, even about my mother? All I can think about is the pain I feel and the sharp sense of being alone.' With each step and each fall, Jesus is tempted to think of himself as the only one with real pain and real problems, as the only one who matters.

The small group of women approach Jesus as he struggled in the procession moving slowly towards Calvary. It was their custom as 'professional mourneres' to try to console the condemned man and even, we are told, offer a narcotic drink to dull the pain of crucifixion. Jesus accepts their words of comfort, but we may assume, not the drug. How well that cup must have expressed the rock bottom reality Jesus was heading for. It symbolized more clearly that the crossbeam on his back that crucifixion was indeed just ahead. That destination, that ordeal, was inevitable. 

Perhaps at the place of execution, Jesus falls yet again, exhausted physically and emotionally. Lying on the ground, Jesus finds' a moment's rest before he will have to get up to face the hammer and nails. In this moment, does he recall other times he had to get up after failure and disappointment, times when he was tempted not to pursure his mission? Does he think of missed opportunities? Are there regrets about words unspoken that might have been? People who ignored his words of life? No matter now about the past. Jesus gets up again to face the present. 

Jesus is now stripped of his last possession. On a small hill just outside the city gates, Jesus stands naked to the world as the soldiers remove his clothes to prepare him for crucifixion. He has lost his strength, his freedon. his disciples, and now even his clothes. What more can he lose? But without owning so much as a garment to cover himself, he has not lost his selfpossession and his dignity. Amid the degradation and torment he suffers, we see so clearly that his fundamental value and dignity come from who he is, not from what he possesses. 

The grotesque act of nailing a human being to a post takes place about midday, and Jesus, one of three criminals, is raised on high. Beyond the torment, the thirst, the blood loss, and the suffocation, Jesus also hears the jeers of those who arranged his execusion: 'He relied on God. Now let God come to rescue him.' 

From multiple causes associated with the crucifixion, Jesus' life is 'interrupted.' What did Mary and the others think as they watched Jesus surrender to the inevitable? It was the end of a loving, faithful, composed, principles, and self sacrificing life. What if Jesus did not die at this time, but, let us say, had taught and healed and loved for another fifteen years, and then was crucified? We think, their lives and ours would have been so much more enriched. What if? . . . But let us be content with God's ways. 

'It is finished,' Jesus had said a short time earlier on the cross. Now he lay dead in Mary's arms. This emotional tableau was the model immortalised in John's Gospel and then, in marble, by Michelangelo's Pieta. Jesus' life was over. Through three decades he was the model of God for many of his contemporaries, and then, over the centuries since then, for endless millions, 'He who sees me, sees the Father,' Jesus had said. As the model of human life, Jesus would touch us all and leave his blessed influence on the world forever. 

Jesus' body was removed from the execution site and broguht to a tomb cut out of rock. One of those who helped prepare the body was Nicodemus, the Pharisee who had questioned Jesus secretly one night a couple of years earlier about his teaching and miracles. Jesus spoke of himself as being 'lifted up.' Did Nicodemus connect this with being lifted up on the cross? Gazing at the lifeless body of Jesus, did he also recall that Jesus had spoken of rising three days later? Did Nicodemus believe this would happen?