Jesus Carries the Cross

Secular presentation

The fourth sorrowful mystery

Jesus has now been forced to walk from the place where He was scourged with the barbed whips, where He was mocked, and is now outside the city walls.  The air is fresher here, the land is verdant and flourishing.  There are people around who will shortly go on about their business.  But He is not free.

Christians believe that God made the earth and all that is in it, and more: that He made it for people to benefit from.  But here Jesus, both fully God and fully man - both at the same time, allows Himself to be forced to carry the wood of the trees He created, upon which He will hang and die.

When a green tree is cut down, it dies, and the wood here is shown as dark as death. The symbolism doesn't need further explanation.  But even now, when everything is closing in on Jesus, there's still time for a throughtful glance, and for someone else to help out.  The Christian message in the picture is that people don't have to leave Jesus to do the saving work all on his own.  The man in green won't be nailed to the cross, but he can help carry the load.