Page 87 - laten-08-06-2020

Mob at the cross

Encountering Christ

Luke 23: 27-31, 35-38, 48 & 49
Introduction

he Lenten meditations always help us to repent, introspect
Tand journey in the way of cross. Jesus’ ministry was always
with the people and for the people. This topic “Mob at the Cross”
reminds us that people followed Him even up to the cross. Luke
in his gospel chapter 23:27-49 informs us that there followed
a great multitude of the people and there of women who were
mourning and lamenting for Him. Some stood watching, the
rulers scoffed and mocked at Him. This meditation would lead
us to reimage, encounter and experience the people at the cross.
Reimaging the Mourning people: (27-31)

It is a fact that women were one of the significant sources
of the Gospel tradition. Women of Jesus’ day were strongly
dominated by the patriarchal Jewish society. As a consequence
women were in a subordinate position with regard to both
family and public life. The Jewish woman’s inferiority was also
evident in restrictions placed upon her participation in the
public and community life. They were not accepted to assume
any public roles or have any public identity. But the gospel
identifies women who were mourning and lamenting at the
cross were not genuinely mourning and lamenting for Jesus,
they are identified as the traditional mourners at occasions of
bereavement. And using these women only in such spaces by
the Jewish society was prominent.

In this incident we see women were witnessing the
crucifixion and they followed Him up to the cross. Jesus replies
to these women in v28, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for
me, but weep for yourself and for your children...” The tragedy
is not that which Jesus was experiencing, but that which these

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Lenten Meditations Re - Imaging People