Station 14 Devotional

XIV

The fever took my child from me

I buried her beneath a tree

They laid your bones inside a borrowed grave

Where hesitating hope stands silently

At the fourteenth Station of the Cross Jesus is laid in the tomb. The Gospel writers recorded the event like this:

“Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and placed it in his own new

tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the

tomb and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite

the tomb” (Matthew 27: 59-61).

“So Joseph bought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen, and

placed it in a tomb cut out of rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance of the

tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph saw where he was laid” (Mark

15:46-47).

“Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock,

one in which no one had yet been laid. It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was

about to begin. The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and

saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. Then they went home and prepared spices

and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment” (Luke

23:50).

“Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. Taking

Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in

accordance with Jewish burial customs. At the place where Jesus was crucified, there

was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid.

Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid

Jesus there” (John 19: 39-42).

Reflection Question: Can you image the fear and sorrow that must have overwhelmed his disciples as they watched his dead body being lowered from the cross?

Prayer: God, who owns every wild animal in the forest and the cattle that graze on a thousand hills and every bird in the hills and all the insects of the field, we celebrate your reign and rule. In the name of Jesus, whose bones were laid inside a borrowed grave.