7 - Jesus Falls the Second Time

By now Jesus has less energy, his progress is slower.  The artist doesn't show them here, but presumably the frustrated threats and blows from guards become ever more unhelpful.  They would be intended to drive Him on, but at the same time it doesn't take much to knock Him down.  We see here as Jesus falls a second time, but this time the artist shows the fall is much harder.  The guards try to pull Him up and on, there is no place of refuge for Him.

Being God, Jesus could say stop at any moment, and the persecution would instantly stop.  But instead He clings to the cross and slowly pulls Himself up, to continue on along this path of suffering.

There's a tradition of likening His falls on this path to our falls when we sin.  The similarity is that just like Jesus, we have to get up from the fall.  But the similarity ends there.  He did not fall from His sin, but from ours.  Our sins are like the blow that knocks Him down, or the stone that trips Him up.  And not only Him, they knock us down too, down and away from the grace of God.

The falls and the cross eventually killed Jesus, but we must never allow sin to defeat us.  On getting up we must know that further blows and stones lie ahead to bring us down.  When we get up again to be reconciled with Him, we need to use the gifts of grace that He offers us:  In short we must learn to anticipate, to step over obstacles, to duck and dive and avoid the blows of the enemy.

Let's pray for the graces to always repent, to find our strength and wisdom in God.  To rely on Him in times of temptation and trial.  Let's pray for the ability to turn to God at such times.