Station X of the Cross – Jesus is Stripped of His Garments

Introduction

This, the tenth station where Jesus is stripped of his garments is a rather significant station. It is one that contains in it a deep meaning and it is one that conveys an important message to us.

Here is the text from the bible relating to the tenth station of the cross.

"19:23 Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also his coat: now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout.

19:24 They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be: that the scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots. These things therefore the soldiers did."

From a personal point of view, this is not easy to write about because we are writing about what a man lived and went through and it seems that by writing about it with the intellect we are disrespecting it slightly.

Legend

There is a legend that says Jesus had three possessions. One was a bowl, the other a comb and the last one was his tunic. The legend continues to say that while travelling he came across somebody who he did not know and was drinking water using his hands, and so Jesus gave him his bowl. Then one day Jesus came across somebody who combed his hair with his hands, and so Jesus gave him his comb. In the tenth station of the cross before being crucified Jesus gave up his only remaining possession which was his tunic.

I also came across some documents from the apocryphal where they state Jesus had the power to become invisible and change his appearance at will. There were many documented accounts of this, one that especially stands out is when Jesus was to be arrested by Pontius Pilate. The guards protested explaining that they could not arrest Jesus because at times he was invisible, then he took the shape of a red ball of light, then the shape of a yellow ball of light, then he assumed the appearance of an old man then the appearance of a young man etc. They did not know who to arrest, the old man or the young man.

Here, from these legends we can draw the conclusion that this station is about the renunciation on two levels, the material and the spiritual.

Elements of the Station

There we see Jesus being spat on, mocked and ridiculed, his garments stripped from him, Jesus becoming naked and Jesus being given to wear the crown of thorns.

Jesus or the Christ, considering that what Jesus showed to us physically is really the Christic drama that is followed by any master who wishes to Christify himself and incarnate the Second Logos, appears to be supremely humiliated in this station. It seems that he has surrendered and that he can’t be the Messiah, as he appears not to be even able to save himself.

However from the esoteric, Gnostic point of view he is renouncing to all worldly things and he is recovering from his previous three falls by producing a new octave in the process by means of sacrifice and renunciation.

Hi is being humiliated so to fulfil the law of the path that every exaltation is preceded by a humiliation. It appears that he is not in control but really from the esoteric point of view he is in complete control he is securing and guaranteeing the success or triumph of the process.

The message that we get from this station, which I will elaborate on later is that renunciation is a guarantee of success.

The Stations Before

The ninth station before this one – the tenth is Jesus fall for the third time. Here Jesus fall for the third and last time on his path to the crucifixion and later resurrection. There is an important message here, that is really worth learning and remembering. It is that even the Christ falls and or those who are to incarnate and become Christs, fall on the path. But as Master Samael says it is not important that you fall but what matters more is that you get up. So don’t crush yourself if you fall, work hard so as to get up again.

Jesus recovers from this third fall in the tenth or next station by his act of supreme renunciation. The tenth station is like a bridge and important milestone or a link that links the stages of the process together, the march to Golgotha and the actual crucifixion on Golgotha. Without the tenth station the crucifixion could not occur.

The Stations After

The eleventh station is where Jesus goes to be crucified. Here the work he or the action he has completed in the tenth station sets him up to be crucified on the cross. With that supreme renunciation of all material things and also the use of all spiritual powers, he recovers from the three previous falls and is now decided to make that supreme sacrifice on the cross.

The humiliation of the tenth station is the decision to be crucified; this is the last chance that Jesus had to free himself from the fate of the cross. In this tenth station he consolidates his resolution, his will and obedience to the Father. This is because in the eleventh station he is nailed to the cross.

Message

One strong point here is that Jesus or the Christ goes through this station consciously and voluntarily. That is the key word voluntarily. He could have at any moment stopped the process. He being the Christ could have invoked a choir of angels to save him, because such treatment if against the will of the Christ is unjust and surely a choir of angels would have come to free the Christ Jesus from such treatment. Even himself he had the power to free himself from that treatment. As we mentioned in an earlier sub-section it was said that Jesus had the power to become invisible at will and so he could have done that.

Renunciation is Something Voluntary

So Jesus doing this voluntarily and he did this for a reason or few several reasons. One reason could be obedience to the Father and the other could be to fulfil the laws of the path, that every exaltation is preceded by a humiliation. However, this shows us very clearly that renunciation is something voluntary and it is something that we have to do, or at least start whereby we will then get help to carry it out to completion. We have to at least show that from our will or union of our will with the will of the Father that we want it.

Christ Will – Higher Design

Anyhow the Christ will is in full action here. This tenth station allows us to see or to better understand what the Christ will is. We can see that it is based upon sacrifice and it operates according to a higher design, and it is precisely this that makes the Christ will misunderstood and ridiculed. That is why the Roman soldiers ridiculed him because they did not understand why he is doing this or being subjected to this when he is the son of God. It seems crazy and ridiculous to the common person but to the esotericist it makes sense.

Any sacrifice is Master Samael says is the conscious choice of one good superior to another. So this sacrifice that Jesus carried out was conscious it was done to achieve a superior good. So Jesus was acting consciously and voluntarily, this is very evident here in the tenth station.

Summary of Lesson Learnt

So in conclusion, we learn from this station about the Christ Will, in that it is voluntary, it is based on sacrifice to achieve a higher good and the Christ Will is not usually understood and is often ridiculed.

We also learn that sacrifice and renunciation are the same and that they are needed to recover form falls, to comply with the law of the path and to produce an superior octave in our work we need renunciation and when we honestly and consciously based upon conscious understanding renounce, we guarantee our future success.

Poverty

The issue of poverty pops up in this station quite significantly, and I think that it is worth digressing a little to expand this point.

There are really only three types of poverty at question here. One is physical poverty, another is inner poverty and the last one is spiritual poverty. However, it is really the latter that is the dominant in this tenth station.

Physical Poverty

This is simple, everybody knows deep within themselves this type of poverty. We have all at some point or another passed through this. We know it instinctively and deep down we fear it. It is to not have money or any possessions of worth that can be used to buy sufficient food, clothing and shelter.

Inner Poverty

This is the case of so many of us, this type of poverty is due to not having the Being within and furthermore not knowing that we have a Being.

We become internally poor when we put all of our attention on the external world, that is on what is external to us and we forget completely about what we have inside. Therefore we don’t cultivate the inner virtues and values, instead we only cultivate the aspects or things of our personality. We accumulate possessions, money, titles and anything that enhances our external image (the way we think others see ourselves). In that way we can become rich externally, i.e. a large bank balance but we remain on the inside, uncultivated, undeveloped and when we look into our interior we see only something black and empty. This is what is called internal poverty. This is so common today. This is what is also called “poor in spirit” or “poor of spirit”.

Spiritual Poverty

This is something a little different and the name is actually quite confusing, well for me anyway. It refers to that action of renunciation and it symbolised by the Jesus the Christ being stripped of his clothing. When one renounces one in effect strips themselves of all that they have of the external world. Even one may divest him or herself of one’s spiritual powers, skills and abilities which is what Jesus did in this station, because he could have quite easily used his powers to free himself, but he didn’t.

One does this renunciation for the benefit of the spiritual work, to come closer to the Father, to surrender to the Father and trust more completely in the Father. So in conclusion it is poverty done for the benefit of the spirit or for the spirit (the Being).

Renunciation

A guarantee of success, is the reason why we renounce.

This is something important in the understanding of renunciation, because the ego who is programmed to live does not understand why it has to renounce its desires, its apparent needs etc.

If we just think about it for a short while we will see that whenever we truly renounce we are safe. We will not lose internally speaking or in our work. So many times when we renounce to something, it later comes to us. To renounce is many things, but it simply could be that we just give up wanting, desiring, hoping for etc.

Renounce Consciously

We have to renounce consciously otherwise it will rebound on us. This is something that we all have learnt from our very own experience. We have all witnessed ourselves with great fervour stopping or renouncing a certain habit, only later on to dive back into it and what’s more even justify why.

Consciously renouncing consists of understanding really that we don’t need that thing that we are getting. When we fully understand this our renunciation will be hold true. We can hold renunciation true using our will until the moment of comprehension comes as well. But the bigger the thing we are renouncing to, the more will we really need and the more difficult and painful it will be. If renunciation is done based upon comprehension it is not very painful or difficult at all.