Station 14

 


XIV

The fever took my child from me

I buried her beneath a tree

They laid your bones inside a borrowed grave

Where hesitating hope stands silently

 

At the fourteenth Station of the Cross Jesus is laid in the tomb. The Gospel writers recorded the event like this:

“Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb” (Matthew 27: 59-61).

“So Joseph bought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen, and placed it in a tomb cut out of rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph saw where he was laid” (Mark 15:46-47).

“Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid. It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin. The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it.  Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment” (Luke 23:50).

“Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there”

(John 19: 39-42).

 

Reflection Question: Can you image the fear and sorrow that must have overwhelmed his disciples as they watched his dead body being lowered from the cross?

 

Prayer: God, who owns every wild animal in the forest and the cattle that graze on a thousand hills and every bird in the hills and all the insects of the field, we celebrate your reign and rule. In the name of Jesus, whose bones were laid inside a borrowed grave.

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