Seventh Station: Jesus Falls a Second Time

Reprinted with permission by Christian Peacemaker Teams

Jesus Falls the Second Time Under the Weight of His Cross

by Jean Fallon

We see Jesus falling beneath the cross the second time. Despite the help of Simon of Cyrene, the cross has crushed Him once more, and He is beaten down by the Roman soldiers. Let us continue with the meditation of Jesus in Palestine now. We see scenes of Baqa’a Valley, outside of Hebron. The second time it is even harder for Jesus to get back up. It is even harder to stand by as witnesses in helpless frustration.

Rebuilt by Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICHAD), once again a Palestinian family sit dazed and crying before their fallen house, utterly crushed and unrecognizable. Not too far away, another Palestinian family experiences the same trauma. For them, it is their third demolition! It is still 1998, and both families had built their homes once more with a renewed hope that now lay in ruins. Their future also lay in ruins. Just before sunrise, the Israeli military had come in the name of the State of Israel, gun and demolition orders at ready, driving out the families, forcibly holding them back while the bulldozers smash their houses… Left in the piles of rubble, the families sit crushed with nothing left but the weight of their homes twice and thrice lost. .

It means nothing that these Palestinian families have held the land for generations. Above them still, on the top of a hill the settlements continue to expand, clearing this area of Palestinians and taking their land.