Stations - Explanatory Notes

The 16 panels are coloured like British road signs, and have texts which are all taken from the passion and resurrection account from St John’s Gospel chapters 19 and 20 from the New International Version of the Bible.

The colour codes are:

Red for warning
Red edges/white centre for military signs
Brown for cultural sites
Dark Green for primary routes
Blue for mandatory signs
White for waiting or loading
Yellow for attention
Black for heavy goods (vehicles)
Light Green for country lanes

In selecting sentences from the story and cutting them back to phrases of between four to seven words, the narrative becomes enigmatic and intriguing—prompting who, what, where, when, why questions from the viewer.

At the same time, if you know the text, you can focus on particular moments of the story in new ways, stopping the narrative for a moment and ignoring what you know is coming after, to really meditate, turning the phrases inside out.

‘Shall I crucify your king?’ asks Pilate - ‘Not our king’, say the crowd, but ‘Yes, crucify him’.
‘the soldiers took charge’ - did they really, or was the Lord in charge?
‘carrying his own’ what? his people, his sheep, his sin (no), our sin (yes), his cross?
‘one on each side and Jesus’ (in the middle) - Jesus with us in our troubles, and in our successes, and most importantly taking our sin upon him.

‘What I have written I have written.’ - ‘Don’t call him King of the Jews’, say the Jewish authorities. Here is Pilate’s reply. This will be Jesus’ title in death.
‘Let’s not tear it’ - 3 blue mandatory signs are for prophecies. Whatever you do when you kill Jesus, you must include these things. e.g. The seamless robe is not torn, so the scripture would be fulfilled - see Psalm 22:17-18.
‘saw his mother there, and the disciple’ - what does it feel like to have been shredded by whipping, and now naked and nailed to a cross, dying in agony, and to have your mother and friend watching? I think I might have asked them to stay home. Jesus tells them to take care of each other.
‘knowing that all was now’ (completed) - Jesus is totally in control. He calls the shots even here. This sign is yellow for attention. This is the moment all creation has been waiting for. This, and the next sign are the centre (numbers 8 and 9, out 16) of the exhibit.

‘It is finished. With that he bowed’ - This is the focus of the whole story, the ‘heavy goods’. Jesus is about to die for the sin of the whole world. It is finished! All sin is paid for! He has done it! This is the pivotal moment in all of history—everything is changed for evermore. With that he bowed (his head and gave up his spirit). Black for death. But he also bowed… I know it is not true of the context but one might think of a performer bowing to the audience at the culmination of his work.
‘already dead, they did not break his’ - they broke the legs of the criminals to speed up their deaths, but did not break his because he was already dead. (Again blue for fulfilment of a prophecy - see Psalm 34:20. Also this prophecy is a reference to Christ as the Passover lamb - see Exodus 12:46.)
‘a sudden flow of blood and water’ - from his spear-pierced side proves he is already dead.
‘look on the one they have’ (pierced) - Zechariah 12:10 says they will look on the one they have pierced to check he is already dead. The shortened phrase allows another meaning: do they really ‘have‘ Jesus? Who is in charge here?

‘in the garden a new tomb’ - brown for culture and also for soil. Today people visit a tomb in Jerusalem that resembles the one Jesus might have been laid in. There is also going to be something very new (different) about this tomb.
‘She came running’ - something has happened! Mary came running from the tomb. When John and Peter are told, they run to the tomb.
‘Inside. He saw and believed’ - Although Peter goes in first, it is John who also ‘went inside. He saw and believed’. Cutting back this phrase allows us to think of how we can see and believe inside too. This sign is yellow for attention—we can/must believe too.
‘Why are you crying?’- Mary is asked this twice—by the angels in the tomb, and Jesus who she presumes is the gardener. I usually understand this as a sign of their compassion. But perhaps we should also read it as, ‘Why are you crying? Jesus has paid for the sin of the world, and now he has been resurrected! Why are you crying? This is the greatest day in the history of the world. You should be dancing!’