The Wild Reed: In Remembering All Who Suffer From Violence, We Remember Jesus

Shane Claiborne, author and founder of The Simple Way, has shared a “new presentation of the Stations of the Cross” for Holy Week 2026. Writes Shane:

This week is Holy Week. As we remember Christ – the Prince of Peace – we also remember all those who suffer from violence, for it was Jesus who said “Whatsoever you do to the least of these, you do to me.” We are grateful to our friends at the Guatemalan-Maya Center for creating these images.

I share today some of the images of this “new presentation,” one focused on the dehumanizing policies and actions of the U.S. government as they relate to immigration. To see all of the images, click here.

I have to say that these powerful images and the message they convey remind me of the “Economic Way of the Cross” which I participated in over 25 years ago in Washington, DC. Following is how I described this event on my Faces of Resistance website.

_________________

The Economic Way of the Cross
Washington, DC – April 10, 2000

In April 2000 I traveled from the Twin Cities to Washington, D.C. to participate in a range of rallies, demonstrations, and teach-ins aimed at protesting the structure and policies of both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) – two organizations that, along with the World Trade Organization (WTO), are the key architects of the corporate global economy.

Collectively, the various events in Washington, D.C. of April 2000 were termed A16 – a reference to April 16, the main day of protest. A16 brought 15,000 people onto the streets of the capital and, like the protests in Seattle against the WTO in November 1999, united a range of people – environmentalists, union members, students, religious people, peace activists, and individuals representing organizations from those countries most devastated by the unjust policies of the World Bank and IMF.

By far the most powerful event I was part of was the “Economic Way of the Cross” on Monday, April 10, 2000. Organized by the Jubilee 2000-aligned Religious Working Group on the World Bank and IMF, a coalition of over forty religious organizations, the Economic Way of the Cross was a prayerful procession through the streets of downtown Washington, D.C. The event sought to draw attention to the policies and practices of various corporate and governmental institutions that devastate the lives of millions of people throughout the world. The Christian underpinnings of the event reflect the theological understanding of Christ being continually crucified while ever people and other aspects of creation experience suffering and death as a result of oppressive structures of power.

“The Economic Way of the Cross invites people of faith to relate prayerfully the Passion of Jesus Christ to the suffering of women, men and children throughout the world today,” noted key organizer Anne Pettifor. “Often, this suffering is the result of unjust economic relationships, what we call social, or structural sin.”

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Jesus at the Border
• Protesting Trump’s “Dystopian” Immigration Policies
• Honoring Óscar and Valeria
• Demanding Justice and Embodying Compassion for Separated Families
• Let Us Be the Wise Ones They’re Waiting For
• A Prayer for Asylum Seekers Being Tear-Gassed at the Border
• Opposing the Trump Administration's Inhumane Treatment of Immigrant Families
• “What We’re Seeing Here Is a Tipping Point”
• Jeremy Scahill on the Historical Context of the Trump Administration's “Pathologically Sick” Anti-Immigrant Agenda
• 2000+ Take to the Streets of Minneapolis to Express Solidarity with Immigrants and Refugees
• May Day 2007

For The Wild Reed’s 2025 Holy Week posts, see:
• Palm Sunday: A Sacred Paradox
• Via Dolorosa
• Silent Saturday
• Marianne Williamson on the Alchemy of Easter

For The Wild Reed’s 2024 Holy Week series (featuring excerpts from Joyce Rupp’s book Jesus, Companion in My Suffering: Reflections for the Lenten Journey), see:
• Recognizing the Truth
• Powerless
• Feeling Abandoned
• Joy Beyond Suffering

For The Wild Reed’s 2023 Holy Week series (featuring excerpts from Marianne Williamson’s book, The Gift of Change: Spiritual Guidance for a Radically New Life), see:
• From Spiritual Death to Rebirth
• A Vortex of the Miraculous
• Tomb Time
• He Is Risen, and So Are You

The Wild Reed’s 2022 Holy Week posts:
• “The Most Authentic Statement of Created Life”
• Good Friday Reflections
• “This Spring, May We Renew the World”
• Easter for Mystics

The Wild Reed’s 2021 Holy Week post:
• The Final Say

The Wild Reed’s 2020 Holy Week posts:
• Holy Week, 2020
• God’s Good Gift

The Wild Reed’s 2019 Holy Week post:
• In This In-Between Time . . . of Both Loss and Promise

For The Wild Reed’s 2018 Holy Week series (featuring excerpts from Druid author and speaker John Michael Greer’s essay “The God from the House of Bread” in the 2012 anthology, Jesus Through Pagan Eyes: Bridging Neopagan Perspectives with a Progressive Vision of Christ), see:
• The God from the House of Bread: A Bridge Between Christianity and Paganism (Part 1)
• The God from the House of Bread (Part 2)
• The God from the House of Bread (Part 3)
• The God from the House of Bread (Part 4)

For The Wild Reed’s 2017 Holy Week series (featuring excerpts from a 1999 interview with scholar and teacher Andrew Harvey, accompanied by images that depict Jesus as the embodiment of the Cosmic Christ), see:
• Jesus Our Guide to Mystical Love (Part 1)
• Jesus Our Guide to Mystical Love (Part 2)
• Jesus Our Guide to Mystical Love (Part 3)

For The Wild Reed’s 2016 Holy Week series (featuring excerpts from Richard Horsley’s 1993 book Jesus and the Spiral of Violence, accompanied by images of Juan Pablo Di Pace as Jesus in the 2015 NBC mini-series A.D.: The Bible Continues), see:
• Jesus and Social Revolution (Part 1)
• Jesus and Social Revolution (Part 2)
• Jesus and Social Revolution (Part 3)