Scriptural Way of the Cross Trivia Quiz

This first station happens after the Last Supper. Jesus takes his disciple to the Garden of Gethsemane. He took Peter, James and John further in and asked them to stay awake with him but they were too tired and went to sleep.

Jesus prays to God in the garden and asks Him if He has to go through with their plan. This shows Jesus' human side, He knows what is about to happen and is afraid. He is asking his Father to help Him find another way but in the end He is obedient and tells God that He will do what He wants.

After this prayer Judas turns up at the garden with a crowd of men with swords and clubs. He has been paid money by the Jewish High Priests to betray Jesus. He has told them that the man he kisses is the one they want so he walks right up to Jesus and kisses Him on the cheek and then the men arrest Him.

The Sanhedrin are a group of the High priests and Jewish religious leaders. They are like a court that can make rulings on religious and criminal acts. They don't like Jesus, He is not following their laws and is even judging them for their behaviour and He is also becoming very popular.

Jesus is taken to them and they question Him about His beliefs, and say that they have heard that He is saying that He is the Messiah. When Jesus doesn't deny the claims, he is found guilty and kept as a prisoner.

While Jesus was being held prisoner and questioned overnight, Peter went into the courtyard to try and find out what was happening. Three different people said they recognised him as being with Jesus, and he told them all that they were wrong. After the third time the rooster crowed and Peter remembered that Jesus had told him that he would deny Him three times before morning. Matthew's Gospel tells us that Peter cried when he realised what he had done.

At this time in the Bible Jerusalem was ruled by the Romans, so their laws were the basis for the legal system. The Sanhedrin were not allowed to put people to death so they took Jesus to the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate.

Pilate asks Him many questions but Jesus will not explain Himself. Pilate doesn't want anything to do with this trial as Jesus is no threat to the Romans and his wife has also sent him a message telling him of a dream she has had that he must have nothing to do with 'that innocent man'.

Pilate is trying to give Jesus a way out but Jesus does not take it. He knows it has to be this way and has no doubts anymore, but Pilate gets angry and frustrated that he is trying to help him and it's being thrown back in his face.

Pilate is so frustrated with Jesus that he orders Him to be flogged, which the soldiers do. The Bible doesn't say how many times, but it is thought to have been at least 39 lashes.

The soldiers do not stop there, though; they mock Him and dress Him in a purple robe and put a crown of thorns on Him. They laugh at Him and slap Him in the face and call Him "The King of the Jews".

Jesus is taken back to Pilate and he tries to give Him back to the Jews to deal with, but the crowd demands that Pilate crucify Him. He tells them that Jesus hasn't done anything wrong and the Jews remind him that He says He is a King, which is against Caesar's authority.

Pilate eventually gives in and hands Him over to be crucified and then they give Him his own heavy Cross to carry all the way up the hill to Golgotha. Not only was it a long walk, but He was also stiff and sore from His previous bad treatment, and probably hungry and thirsty, too.

Jesus has already fallen over once, and would probably have been taking a long time to walk the pathway. The Bible does not tell us why the Romans got someone to help Jesus. We know from what they have already done that it wasn't to be kind. Some people think it was just to hurry the walk up or to make sure that He didn't die on the way there from exhaustion. Simon was just a man in the crowd, he was not a disciple or even from the area, but the Romans picked him out and told him to help Jesus carry the Cross.

On the way to Golgotha Jesus passes a group of women who are crying for Him. These women were not afraid to show that they cared for Jesus at a time when it was very dangerous for them to do so. Even in His pain and exhaustion, He stops to comfort them and He tells them to weep for themselves and their children for what is to come instead of for Him.

When they reach Golgotha Jesus is crucified. The first words He says from the Cross are a prayer to forgive those who did it to Him. It is on the Cross that Jesus becomes what Christians call the 'Lamb of God'.

At that time lambs were sacrificed to God so that He would forgive people their sins. That is no longer required in the New Testament, because Jesus became the Lamb and was sacrificed for everybody's sins - past, present and future.

Jesus is crucified between two thieves. One of them is very rude and mean and teases Him about saving himself and them if He really is the Messiah. The other tells him to stop it, that they deserve the punishment that they are receiving, but that Jesus doesn't.

Then he asks Jesus to remember him when He comes into His Kingdom. Jesus replies to Him by saying that He would see him in Heaven later that day.

As He is hanging on the Cross, Jesus sees his mother Mary and the disciple He loved. This is how John the disciple is referred to several times in the Gospels. He tells Mary that John is now her son and John that Mary is his mother. We know from reading the later parts of the New Testament that John took Mary into his care and looked after her until she died.

Jesus died at three o'clock in the afternoon after giving His spirit up to God. The different Gospels all describe different combinations of the physical effects that took place as Jesus died; the sky turned black, the temples was torn in two, the earth shook and the graves broke open.

It was approaching the evening and the beginning of the Jewish Sabbath, so the bodies had to be taken down from the crosses. There was a man called Joseph of Arimathaea who was a secret disciple of Jesus; he asked Pilate if he could take the body and was given permission.

There was a garden nearby that had a new tomb in it, so He was taken there. The body was prepared with spices and wrapped in linen as was the Jewish custom and the tomb was sealed.

Some stations end at the 14th but many churches had begun to add a 15th. In 2000 John Paul II gave his approval for Catholics to include a 15th station where they can celebrate the Resurrection as the final part of the story. This station is not used on Good Friday or other days where it may be inappropriate according to the liturgy.