Our Readings for Today are: Psalms 137, 144, 42, 43; Jere 31:27-34; Rom 11:25-36; John 11:28-44 & 12:37-50
Ninth Station: Jesus Meets the Women of Jerusalem
Scripture Reading: "A large crowd of people followed Jesus, including many women who mourned and lamented him. Jesus turned to them and said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep instead for yourselves and for your children, for indeed, the days are coming when people will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed.' At that time, people will say to the mountains, ‘Fall upon us!' and to the hills, ‘Cover us!' for if these things are done when the wood is green what will happen when it is dry?"
Luke 23: 27-31
The day before Lent ends we come to this place where Jesus prophesies even as he suffers. Less than 40 years later Jerusalem would lay in ruins...the Romans sent an army of a million to destroy the city, the temple, and the Jewish nation. Jeremiah centuries before spoke to the people to pray for the nation of their captivity, even as the psalmist cried out in the pain of captivity. God does not delight in suffering even as he proclaims the "what will happen" fact of what our sin does to us. We live in a world desperately in need of God's intervening grace.
A Prayer:
"Father you know the world in which we live and you grieve the pain and suffering of a people who have no regard for your laws and yet reap the fruit of that sin in everyday life. We cry out with the psalmist for mercy and redemption, that which only can come through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."
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