Station 11: Jesus is Nailed to the Cross

There’s a finality to that imagery of being nailed to a cross. It’s almost the same as the saying, “putting a nail on a coffin.”

When Jesus was praying at the Mount of Olives, Jesus pleaded to God not to forsake Him, yet still He chose to follow His Father. Even after each of the three times He fell, Jesus still chose to continue three more times all the same. At each of these moments of difficulty and pain, God the Father stood next to Him, encountering Jesus again and again at each turn. But when it came time to be bound and nailed to the cross, the choice was no longer His to make. His hands and feet were bound by guards and finally nailed to the cross.

All that’s left is just surrender…

There’s no more willingness left. The choice was made for you. You are bound and there is nowhere left but to surrender. The end. Right? And yet there are still four more stations left… Meaning four more chances to encounter God until we finally encounter Him for eternity.

As an engineer, my job requires me to make tools, processes, and mechanisms to fix any problem no matter how tall. I’m to use clever ways to solve every problem imaginable. And yet there are still times when hard work and clever ways won’t work, and failure is inevitable.

Lord, there were so many times when everything became too much to bear. In those times, it feels like choices were made for us or things were unseemingly thrust upon us. It is in those times You are closest to us. Lord, I pray that I may encounter You in those times. Lord, I pray that I encounter You again and again and as many times as it takes, especially in those times of suffering, until I may rest in You for eternity. Amen.

Huy Nguyen

Ignis