Picture from the Web Gallery of Art, where more information is available.

Santi Raffaello (or Sanzio), Christ Falls on the Way to Calvary Simone Martini, The Carrying of the Cross Charles Bouleau, Christ Carries the Cross Giotto di Bondone, Road to Calvary Jacopo Tintoretto, The Ascent to Calvary

Humiliation - Scourging, Carrying the cross

Mark 15: 15-23; Matthew 27:27-32; John 19:2-3

'They made a crown of thorny branches and put it on his head'

Jesus had been whipped after he was condemned by Pilate. Now he was mocked by the soldiers, who put him in fake royal robes, with a crown made of thorns. They beat him, spat on him and bowed down before him mockingly before they put his own clothes back on him and led him out to his death. Then Jesus was made to carry the cross on which he would be crucified. The procession moved off to Golgotha, 'the Place of the Skull'. The only relief for Jesus was a short time when a bystander, Simon of Cyrene, was forced to carry the cross. It was a far cry from Jesus's triumphant entry into Jerusalem only a week earlier.

Humiliating someone is a form of bullying. What is the feeling that makes people want to humiliate someone? If you humiliate someone, what do you feel like immediately afterwards? Or a long time afterwards?

Where is Cyrene? Why might Simon have been standing in the crowd? What do you think he felt like at being asked to carry the cross?

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