faith, hope and love: Luke 23: 26-33, the way of the cross

Friday, February 7, 2020

Luke 23: 26-33, the way of the cross

As they led him away they took hold of a certain Simon, a Cyrenian, who was coming in from the country; and after laying the cross on him, they made him carry it behind Jesus. 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?” Now two others, both criminals, were led away with him to be executed.

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: 26-33

image by Roger Marks

https://www.flickr.com/photos/rpmarks/4314342099

Creative Commons — Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic — CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Golgotha_cross-section.svg

Yupi666 at English Wikipedia [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]

The winding way of the cross in old city Jerusalem began at the Antonia Fortress (that later became the site of Pontius Pilate' praetorium--the building was the court where Jesus was tried for blasphemy before being crucified) and ended on the top of the steep hill called Golgatha--a distance of approximately 0.6 kilometer, or 3/8 mile. Via Dolorosa - Wikipedia

image by Benjamin (click on the link below to zoom in)

IL09 1411 Map of the Via Dolorosa, Jerusalem ויה דולורוזה | Flickr

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/

we live on top of a hill overlooking the town of strasburg va. this photograph was taken just outside our back door:

I imagine that the topography from our backyard looking northwest is similar to the topography from golgotha looking towards Jerusalem. looking directly over the stormwater management pond outfall structure, I visualize the great temple at the top of the ridge about a mile away. I visualize Jerusalem's exterior wall at the bottom of the hill in the valley about a half mile away. the elevation difference between the bottom of the hill and where I was standing when I took this photograph is similar to the elevation difference between golgotha and where Jesus began carrying His cross at Jerusalem's exterior wall (shown in the color illustration above).

crucified Jesus, have mercy on us.