He sets his face like flint and takes our place,
Staggers beneath the black weight of us all
And falls with us that he might break our fall.

Stations of the cross, number 9. Westminster cathedral How to make the Stations of the Cross - Westminster Cathedral

So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). There they crucified him. John 19:16-18

Bent over, fallen

It’s been said that the most accurate picture of God is the vulnerable, crucified Jesus. That’s worth a ponder. Here Jesus is bent over, fallen. Is this posture a challenge, an affront? Does it connect with intimacy, compassion, recognition? What is my felt response? Here are some further thoughts by a few writers.

We can no longer see God in Jesus, this man who seems so frail, who stumbles and falls.Vatican, Station 3

May we be forgiven when we do not feel compassion for those who bear heavy burdens, physical or emotional, and fall beneath them. Stations of the Cross, Raymond Chapman

And now he falls upon the stones that bruise
The flesh, that break and scrape the tender skin.
He and the earth he made were never closer,
Divinity and dust come face to face.
Malcolm Guite, Station III Jesus falls the first time. Sounding the Seasons; seventy Sonnets for the Christian Year, Canterbury Press 2012

A prayer

Jesus, walking towards death, be with us when our bodies fail at last.