Lenten reflection… ‘Jesus falls under the weight of the cross’
by Mudiare Onobrakpeya
AMONG Bruce Onobrakpeya’s ‘Stations of the Cross’ ‘Jesus Falls Under the Weight of the Cross’ is one of the most piercing in its truth, unrelenting in its power. It is a moment suspended in time, yet it speaks to every age—a moment not of defeat, but of resilience, of grace, of the unwavering purpose that neither suffering nor exhaustion could extinguish.
Onobrakpeya’s vision captures not just a man stumbling under the weight of a wooden beam, but the weight of a world gasping under the burden of its own brokenness. The fall of Christ is the fall of every man, every woman, every weary traveler on the road of life. It is the crushing weight of duty, the unspoken battles of the heart, the moments where even the strong bend under the strain of existence. And yet, this fall is not an end. It is a passage, a rhythm in the divine choreography of redemption. Lent calls us not to evade the weight, but to bear it. To look at our own weakness without flinching. To see in our struggles not just pain, but purpose.
The ground meets Jesus not as a place of disgrace, but as a place of decision. Does He remain there, swallowed by exhaustion? No. He rises. He moves forward. And in that rising, He teaches us that failure is not in the fall, but in the refusal to rise. We will stumble under the burdens of life—under fear, under doubt, under the quiet weight of unrealized dreams. But like Christ, we are not called to remain fallen. We are called to rise, not by the power of will alone, but by the sustaining grace of the One who fell before us, and for us.
Onobrakpeya’s artistic language is one of tension—between suffering and hope, between despair and redemption. The fall of Jesus is not the spectacle of a broken man, but the revelation of a love that will not be deterred. It is an echo to all who walk the difficult path: there is strength even in stumbling, there is grace even in hardship. And the road to victory is often marked by the dust of struggle.
May we see in Christ’s fall our own struggles, and in His rising, our own calling. May we learn to carry the burdens life places upon us with the certainty that we do not walk alone. Lent is not a season of resignation—it is a season of renewal. And in the weight of the Cross, we find the shape of victory.
Onobrakpeya’s ‘Stations of the Cross’ continues to command attention. Due to popular demand, its exhibition at the Smithsonian has been extended into spring before it travels to Paris. In Nigeria, the full 14 Stations can be experienced at the
Yemisi Shyllon Museum at Pan-Atlantic University.
