There stands the cross. A stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles.And what about us? What does the cross mean to us? Over the past 40 days we have attended the way of the cross. We have pondered on the sufferings, the agony of Jesus and yesterday we commemorated the death of our Lord Jesus. We come to the cross, we weep, we stand in awe – and then what?

Most often we walk away only to come back weeping, to come back broken, to come back sorrowful – to think about the absolute agony that it was for our Lord Jesus to die on the cross. But today, in the silence between the cross and the resurrection of Easter Sunday, I hear God calling me to walk to the other side. He went to the cross for me. He endured horrific sufferings and died an agonising death on the cross for me. For me! Just the thought overwhelms me, I cannot even begin to start comprehending it. But my lack of comprehension, my inability to understand idoes not negate the truth of the matter. Our Lord Jesus died on the cross for me. And now He wants me to keep walking, onwards from the cross. He wants me to cross over to the resurrection life – the resurrected life that He won for me. The resurrected life, the life beyond the cross – is a life of victory.
For it is no longer I who live but Christ Jesus, the Risen Lord who lives in me. And He is the God of victory. As a mother of two toddlers, He tells me that I now get to live the life of victory. No longer do I have to walk around tired, sleep-deprived and stressed accepting that this is the ‘normal’ of this time. He calls me to victory in this season. I do not have to put up with the ‘normal’, I get to pursue after victory. And that victory may look different from season to season but there is peace, there is love and there is joy promised in every circumstance. He tells me that the life beyond the cross is a life of power not defeat. Because the cross overcomes everything. I get to lift up this glorious cross, high above every emotion, every circumstance, every situation that threatens to overwhelm me and crush me. The resurrected life means I get to walk in health and wholeness because of the precious blood that was shed for me.

Prayer: Abba Father, this Easter I am stepping forward into Victory. I am moving to the life beyond the cross, in the power of the cross and all because of the cross. Amen