Easter is about 9 days away. We have so much to be thankful for. It is a time of celebration, yet it was a time of crying and so much pain.
Can you imagine knowing what the cross was all about? It was for criminals and not Christ. It was punishment for a life of wrong doing and hurting others. So, how could they justifying putting Jesus on the cross.
The first mention of the cross from Jesus might have seemed a little strange.
Matthew 16:24 NLT
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me.
How do you take up your cross? The people around Jesus might have been a little puzzled as to what Jesus meant by taking up their cross. He never wasted His words. But what was this about?
John 19:17-18 NLT
Carrying the cross by himself, he went to the place called Place of the Skull (in Hebrew, Golgotha). 18 There they nailed him to the cross. Two others were crucified with him, one on either side, with Jesus between them.
Then they saw Him. They saw Jesus carry His own cross. It was a horrible road, and it was a difficult thing to watch.
Move to the end of where He carried the cross and Jesus was nailed to it. Can you imagine looking at the cross before when He was carrying it, and then looking at the cross when He was hanging on it? That had to be confusing.
But there was a ready. May we see the cross for how God uses it in our lives. It is a place of guilt, shame and punishment. But Jesus deserved none of that.
He deserved none of that until my sin was placed on Him. That is until your sin was placed on Him. May we see the cross as those that were present when it happened did.
Galatians 3:13 NLT
But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For it is written in the Scriptures, “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”
1 Peter 2:24 NLT
He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed.
That is what Jesus did for us. In the coming week may we really examine what Jesus did for us. May we see the place of death as a place that brings us and others life. May we not make it small and insignificant but mighty and a mark of who Jesus really is.
Easter is ahead. Let’s get ready!
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