Eighth Station: Jesus Meets the Women

Reprinted with permission by Christian Peacemaker Teams

The Eighth Station – Jesus Meets the Women of Jerusalem
by Mary Wendeln

A large crowd of people followed Jesus, including many women who mourned and lamented him. Jesus turned to them and said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep instead for yourselves and for your children, for indeed, the days are coming when people will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed.' At that time, people will say to the mountains, ‘Fall upon us!' and to the hills, ‘Cover us!' for if these things are done when the wood is green what will happen when it is dry?" Luke 23: 27-31

Jesus tells the women of today to weep for themselves and their children if their society continues on the path that it is on.

The reality is that all women living in Palestine and Israel bear the cross of division. Palestinian women, bear the possibility of home demolitions, substandard social and health services. Mothers fear home invasions or not knowing the whereabouts of their sons, detained by the Israeli army. Others fear that their sons may be wounded and blacklisted for throwing stones.

Israeli women bear the burden of a national policy of violence and injustice. All suffer from a national budget that prioritizes military power over human needs. Many live in fear of violence as the mothers who lost their sons in the Yeshiva seminary killings.

Jesus meets Israeli and Palestinian women working together and together they question why this is happening.

They meet us and ask how many times have we felt sorry for the victim and failed to question the policies that perpetuate this injustice? How many times have we failed to question our involvement in the injustice? How many times have we continued to talk about an injustice and failed to act?