Stations of the Cross: Lent in Israel Palestine

Easter has come and gone for another year. Here in the UK we are heady with resurrection, and Lent is far behind us. But in areas of the world damaged by ongoing violence Good Friday continues.

We rejoice as Christians in the resurrection, but we can’t let its comfort blinker us to the suffering continually experienced by many of God’s children. The Christian Peacemaker Team in Palestine prepared a series of reflections for Lent following the Catholic stations of the cross. Here are the first four, still relevant though Lent is behind us for the moment. For the rest of the stations, please visit www.cpt.org:

First Station of the Cross—Jesus, accused by his enemies, stands condemned before Pilate
by Jean Fallon

As we recall Jesus standing before Pilate, who represents the Occupying Roman Forces, and the full weight of the Roman Empire, let us meditate on a scene happening in Hebron. Six Palestinian youths, between the ages of fifteen and nineteen, stand before the Israeli military, accused by a settler woman of breaking and entering her home.

Not knowing what would happen to them, they stood with their arms raised, hands on metal doors, legs apart, some of them still in the thin clothing they were wearing at home when soldiers came to arrest them. For close to four hours of standing in the cold, blindfolded and handcuffed, they endured a heckling crowd of settlers, before the police took them to the police station, questioned them, and finally released them after midnight. At a checkpoint on their way home, a soldier tore up one of their IDs.

Six Palestinian teenagers… whose actual crime was breaking through a fence into an open square near the settlers’ housing area to look for scrap metal. Even though their families gave witness on their behalf, the word of a settler condemned them. Two are now facing a hearing and the rest have their names on the Israeli police list of potential terrorists.

The Second Station: Jesus Takes Up His Cross
By Joy Ellison

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

For 40 years, Palestinians have born the cross of military occupation. Palestinians have lost their land, their homes, their olive trees, their cultural traditions, and their lives. Throughout these 40 years, people around the world, but especially Christian Zionists, have offered their support to the Israeli military occupation of Palestine. Because the unconditional support our governments offer the state of Israel, we are complicit in the suffering of the Palestinian people.

The Third Station - Jesus Fall the First Time Under the Weight of His Cross
By Jean Fallon

We see Jesus falling the first time beneath the weight of the cross... the full weight of the Roman Empire! It is someone crushed and un-recognizable, beaten down by soldiers of the Occupying Roman Forces and the unseen power behind Jesus' condemnation. Let us continue the meditation, Jesus in Palestine now. We see scenes of several years ago in the Beq'qa Valley, Hebron. Standing with the Christian Peacemakers Teams we are like the crowd, forced to stand by as helpless witnesses.

August 1998: members of two Palestinian families sit dazed and crying before their fallen homes, now utterly crushed and unrecognizable! For one family, this is the second time! The remains of their houses, built with such hope on their own land, now represents a bleak future for themselves and their children, and all that is left of their life savings. The Israeli Occupation Forces, enforcers for the Occupiers, (the State of Israel), had come, guns at ready, just before sunrise, driving the families outside... with them come
bulldozers, demolishing the houses in a total of five minutes. Left are heaps of rubble and the families, sitting in the cold, with nothing but the heavy weight of their lost homes.
Fourth Station of the Cross—Jesus meets his mother on the way to his execution
Let us recall Jesus meeting His mother as He carries His cross. She was unable to stand by quietly and see her innocent son accused, condemned and on His way to execution. Not only did she reach out to her son beneath His cross, she must have spoken out to the soldiers and tried to tell them of His innocence. Let us continue with the meditation and think of Jesus in contemporary Palestine.

Here in Hebron we see mothers of six Palestinian youths accused of breaking and entering a settlement enclave in the Old City. Their mothers know their innocence and we witness these women trying to stop the police from taking their sons to the Israeli police station, where anything can happen to them. They rush to the Israeli soldiers to tell them their sons were at home all day. They reach out and actually hold back the military armored personnel carrier in which their sons have been placed. In the face of hostile settlers with guns pointed at them, their courage inspired those who could do so to join with them and ask for mercy.