It’s impossible not to be moved as we approach Easter: it is so full of emotion for those who believe. We delight in the euphoria as Jesus went into Jerusalem, to the celebratory sound of the crowd on the first Palm Sunday; a far cry from the utter suffering, pain and shame He went through as He was barbarically put to death on a cruel cross and then laid in a borrowed tomb just one week later.
It is vital that we pause continually at the cross: that’s where pure love, forgiveness and reconciliation took place. That’s where the debt for our sin was uniquely paid and the place where the relationship between Father God and us, His children, was finally restored!
As we journey in our thoughts away from the cross, we must linger at the tomb and think upon its emptiness and what that means for us. No-one stole His body, He didn’t fake his death and escape when the coast was clear. He defeated death, life came back to Him and, ‘because He lives, we also shall live’. (See John 14:19.) Our hope, our joy and our elation in the risen Christ is a sign of faith, that we believe He is the messiah and saviour of the world. He alone is the source of our victory and most worthy of our praise, not just for this Easter time but always!