Isaiah 52:13-53:12
Hebrews 10:1-25
John 18:1--19:37
Psalm 22:1-21
The Way of the Cross
The way of the Cross. The loneliness, the pain, the confusion, the fear, the abandonment. And death waiting for us at the end of the journey.
We've all been on that path at sometime or other in our lives. For a moment, for a day, or even, some of us, for years.
All human beings, Christian or not, walk through suffering at some time in their lives. Today we remember the wondrous miracle that God walks that path of suffering too.
We, who call ourselves Christians and choose to take up our cross and follow Jesus, know by that cross we carry that we never walk alone. We know that our God has "been there, done that." Our God really knows what hell is like.
And we know we can lay our burdens and our broken lives at the foot of the cross. The Bible calls us "a kingdom of priests." We are all priests who carry a cross. We are priests who can offer up our own suffering on that cross.
And because it is Christ's priesthood that we share and Christ's cross that we follow as we carry our own crosses, we know that the way of the Cross does not end with death.
When we look at the Cross, we know how the story ends. The way of the Cross finally and forever ends with an empty tomb and a glorious resurrection.
All people sometime must walk a path of suffering; it's part of the world that we, like Jesus, were born into. We, who carry our own cross and follow Jesus on that path, can walk with the certain hope that if we offer our suffering to God – if we are really willing to let it go – our Father will change our suffering into blessing.
The way of the Cross is the way to eternal life because Jesus walked our path of suffering and made it holy.
We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you:
Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.