Via Dolorosa

I was asked this weekend to step in as a last minute chaperone for my church's youth retreat. An odd request to come my way at the end of my spring break, but I agreed thinking it would be a fun way to end my time home. Little did I know the theme for the weekend was centered around Christ's arrest, death, burial and resurrection. 
Saturday afternoon we watched a clip from a History channel special on scourging and crucifixion, a heavy topic. They showed a reenactmemt of Christ walking down the Via Dolorosa (Way of Grief) in Jerusalem. 
I was standing there a year ago this February. I saw the Church of the Flagellation. I walked the 12 stations of the Cross, some of which was on the same cobblestone that Jesus stumbled his way to Golgotha on. Our youth minister ended the afternoon session with these words-"You deserve to be scourged like he was. You deserved to carry that beam like he had to. You deserved to walk down the Via Dolorosa like he did.
But God, my Father loved me enough to keep me from that. And a year ago, as I reached Golgotha, praise the Lord! When my walk ended, I did not have to be hung on the cross like he was. It was already wonderfully, mercifully done for me. What a soboring thought! My journey down the Via Dolorosa ended in devotional reflection and not death. And I don't take time to reflect on that incredible truth like I should. But maybe thats because if I did, I wouldn't have been as affected as I was; as I am. 

Part of our group walking down the Via Dolorosa
in Jerusalem last February

At the Church of the Flagellation,
where we began our journey of the 12 stages

Praying in the Garden of Gethsemane
February 16th,  2012