STATION 3: JESUS FALLS FOR THE FIRST TIME

He was despised and rejected by others;
a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity;
and as one from whom others hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him of no account.

Surely he has borne our infirmities
and carried our diseases;
yet we accounted him stricken,
struck down by God, and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgressions,
crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the punishment that made us whole,
and by his bruises we are healed.
— Isaiah 53:3-5 (New Living Translation)

Station 3

He stumbles.
The weight is too much—
and his legs finally give out beneath it.

This is the Savior of the world.
The Word made flesh.
The Light that darkness cannot overcome.
And now that Light collapses into dust.

He doesn’t float above suffering.
He sinks into it.
The God who set stars in motion
falls to the ground,
proving once and for all
that holiness is not above humanity—
it is within it.

He knows what it means to be exhausted.
To be broken.
To reach the limit of strength.
And still, he continues.

In a world that glorifies power,
Jesus shows us a different kind of strength—
the strength to fall,
and still rise.

So if you’ve fallen—
in grief, in weakness, in failure—
you’re not outside the path.
You’re right here,
on the road Jesus walked.

Let us pray.

Jesus, you fell under the weight of it all — and in your falling, you remind us that failure is not the end of the story.

Forgive us when we hide our weaknesses, when we measure our worth by our ability to stand tall. Teach us that your grace meets us on the ground.

We pray for all who have fallen today — for the ones who are struggling with shame, for the ones who can’t seem to get back up, for those who feel forgotten in the dirt.

Be near to them, O Christ. Lift them gently. Remind them they are not alone.

And when we fall — because we will — help us remember: you’ve been there. And your love doesn’t walk away.

Amen.