Artist Statement: Through considering Christ’s crucifixion we are brought deep into the sacred pain Jesus suffered. Sacred pain is a term often used to refer to the five pains of humanity Jesus humbled himself to experience — desolation, mortification, humiliation, exhaustion, and death. Specifically, the emotional pain of desolation Jesus experienced in the Garden of Gethsemane, the physical pain of crucifixion, the pain of humiliation from the crown of thorns, the pain of exhaustion while carrying his cross to Calvary, and the pain of death on the cross. Because of Jesus’ Passion, our pain can become sacred as we face our pain in the confidence of Christ, who shared in all our pains, and by his dying and resurrection destroyed death: “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin. So let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help” (Hebrews 4:15-16).