It’s the very next sentence after yesterday’s flogging:

And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him. (Matthew 27.31, ESV)

John gives more detail:

They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.” So he delivered him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. (John 19.15 – 17, ESV)

“bearing his own cross…”

How difficult would it be to walk to the place of your own execution? Especially in Jesus’ case where he had already been beaten to a pulp. “I’m not walking there. Just kill me now.” But no. Jesus is told to carry the cross so he carries the cross (until he can’t – more on that tomorrow).

Gary Jansen’s meditation on this station includes this application:

Whatever you’re going through is probably not fair. There is no retreat from life or the chaos that ensues from the sometimes terrible and demeaning actions of others. And while we are asked to surrender to God’s will, there is no surrender in this world until our final moment. – Gary Jansen, Station to Station

“There is no surrender in this world until our final moment” reminds me of something C.S. Lewis wrote in the lesser-known essay “The Sermon and the Lunch.” “There is nowhere this side of heaven where one can safely lay the reins on the horse’s neck.” I may write more about that when it comes up again.

Jesus endures. He perseveres.

In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him. (Hebrews 5.7 – 9, ESV)