Taking a Breath: Remembering our Larger Theme | Reflection by Amber Ross

Lead me to your cross. We sing this song together on Sunday mornings, but now we choose to walk it out on Monday mornings as well. We choose to live out the reality of this on Tuesday. And we seek to pursue the significance on Wednesday. Thursday we are overwhelmed with the weight of it, and Friday we are met in the grace that flows from it. Most likely on a Saturday, we are feeling what the disciples must have felt the three days Jesus was gone. And Sunday we do it all over again. For the next 40 days we have made this our anthem.

By now, we have probably come to realize two things, 1) that this is not an easy process but, 2) it is so worth it. As we are growing and maturing in understanding, we are expanding our capacities to understand what the cross means. The cross is heavy, and rightfully so: it carries the weight of eternity. One of the greatest things you and I have in common is the result the cross had for us. At once, we were all doomed to the fate of the cross, but God in His infinite glory allowed for His Son to suffer for our sake. In His sinless life, Jesus was able to bear the cross of all men and women.

We live every day of our lives with this freedom. But how often do we recognize it or acknowledge it—especially the fact that the freedom was granted from suffering? Because one Friday about 2,000 years ago, during the sixth hour darkness fell over a hill. Then three hours later, the one who came to save us, the one called Messiah, hung his head as the cup of suffering surged through His veins as He breathed His last. The veil tore, the earth shook, and the rocks split. And there it was: in these three days, He defeated death. We were granted our freedom that Sunday, when He rose as the sun did.

So as we go throughout the next forty days, may we be granted a better understanding of the way of Jesus, of His journey to the cross, and its implications for us now.

"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. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?'" (Matthew 16:24-26, NLT).