Station Fifteen
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo: Crucifixion, c. 1745-1750 ( oil on canvas 79 x 88 cm)
Luke 23:32-38
Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.
The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One.”
The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.”
If at all possible take time to listen to the audio for this station; it is a mix of music and sounds of the crucifixion.
You taught us, Lord, that the greatest love a man can show is to lay down his life for his friends. But your love was greater still, because you laid down your life for your enemies. It was while we were still enemies that you reconciled us to yourself by your death. What other love has ever been, or could ever be, like yours? You suffered unjustly for the sake of the unjust. You died at the hands of sinners for the sake of the sinful. You became a slave to tyrants, to set the oppressed free.
Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) - abbot of Clairvaux, an influential proponent of asceticism and the crusades
