The 1st Station
Jesus is condemned to death.
The 1st Station: Jesus is condemned to death.
Archbishop Fulton Sheen noted that Jesus Christ came to earth to die. Sheen’s insight is grounded in the understanding that Jesus is both a priest and a victim.
Never before had a priest been the one who sacrificed and was sacrificed. Something other than the priest was always sacrificed (e.g., goats, rams, lambs, doves, pigeons, etc.).
Jesus Christ is unique, peculiar, and powerful.
Any understanding that avoids the truth that Christ came to die misinterprets and inevitably diminishes Him to a mere moral teacher or good-hearted fellow among many throughout history.
Jesus is God. He is the High Priest. He is the sacrificial offering. Jesus Christ is both the priest and the victim. He is the shepherd and the lamb. He is the one who offers sacrifice and is sacrificed.
The Bible is not interested in diminishing Christ to just another moral teacher. Consider the Letter to the Hebrews, “It was fitting that we should have such a high priest: holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, higher than the heavens” (Hebrews 7:26). Jesus is a priest who is higher than the heavens yet an undefiled sacrifice.
Good moral teachers may shape a generation but they do not open Heaven.
Something radically different is happening with Jesus Christ - His sacrificial death is efficacious. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us that, “By his death and Resurrection, Jesus Christ has ‘opened’ Heaven to us” (CCC, 1026).
In the 1st station of the cross, the chief priests are handing over to the Romans the perfect sacrifice, the God-man. Their rationale is that they are condemning a man to the horrible and cruel death of a Roman crucifixion. In other words, the crucifixion will end the Jesus movement and his followers will scatter.
This 1st station doesn’t catch Jesus off guard. Again, remember Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s insight - Jesus Christ came to die. We read in the Gospel of Matthew that Jesus predicts His death (which He does numerous times). He says to the disciples, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked, flogged, and crucified. On the third day, he will be raised to life!” (Matthew 20:18-19).
The journey of the cross is predicted by Christ. He knows what is to come: bruised, beaten, mocked, betrayed, abandoned, whipped, scourged, ridiculed, humiliated, tortured, ignored, unjustly accused, broken up, poured out, crucified, and sacrificed.
In the Gospel of John Jesus tells his disciples, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.” (John 12:24).
Jesus is in control. He is the High Priest. He is the Victim. His death is about to defeat evil from the inside out. Thus, we are challenged in this 1st station to encounter Christ who came to die so that we “may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).
“We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you; because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.”
Fr. Ben Daghir
Very well written!
i really enjoyed reading this with my classmates