Proverbs 24:16
A righteous man falls seven times, and rises again;
but the wicked are overthrown by calamity.
One of the most tremendously moving (and encouraging) images in our faith is the Stations of the Cross. In the Stations, we follow Jesus from his trial to his death, burial, and resurrection via prayer and contemplation of different scenes from the Passion. Among those scenes are three separate occasions where the omniscient and omnipotent God Incarnate stumbles and falls. Those scenes are not included by accident. They are deliberately included for a very specific theological purpose: To remind us that if Jesus was weak, he will surely be tender toward us in our weakness and merciful to us in our sin. You have undoubtedly fallen more than seven times. It doesn’t matter. If you ask Jesus for mercy and help, he will give it seventy times seven times. He’s been there.
