Tributes for Kings: Kevin Rolly's The Stations of the Cross

Station 7 - Jesus Falls for the Second Time - Kevin Rolly

The Stations of the Cross is a very old Christian tradition. It is a meditative practice on the journey of Jesus to the Cross. Traditionally, it comprises 14 stations or places of reflection ending with the burial of Jesus in the borrowed tomb. Some modern renditions include a new Station 15 - The Resurrection.

Miss Eagle has discovered a modern reworking of The Stations: a magnificent, creative, poetic, reflective and challenging reworking. It is the work of Kevin Rolly and was performed at Asbury Theological Seminary, Kentucky, USA. Please take time for a reflective journey with Kevin Rolly and his collaborators. In the words of Kevin Rolly:

The Stations of the Cross traditionally end with the Burial in the Tomb.

We are left to contemplate the ultimate sacrifice that Jesus made and to wait in expectation of the resurrection.

This moment however is rarely depicted in art.

It is my contention that Good Friday and the Resurrection are inextricably woven together,

but in modern culture we tend to emphasize one over the other.

To dwell only in the Resurrection is to neglect the battle that was won for the sake of love.

I argue that the Resurrection loses it's deeper meaning without the believers' conscious passage through the walk to the cross and to truly know the cost of that victory.

In culture we end up with only rainbows and light which ignores the very real darkness.

We end up with kitsch.

To dwell only in Good Friday slowly leads us to feel the burden of guilt already paid for by the cross.

We are left as the the disciples were on that day...depressed and never knowing the victory.

Life is both light and dark.

But in the end it is the victory in which we are left having known the journey there.

That is the true Way of the Cross.