Saturday, April 4

One of [the priests], Ca’iaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all; you do not understand that it is expedient for you that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation should not perish.”
—John 11: 49-50

Throughout our Lenten journey, we have walked with Jesus toward Jerusalem. On the cusp of Holy Week, we now know that Jesus will indeed walk closer and closer to the cross and that some will walk with him while others reject him.

Have you taken the time this Lent to identify the things in your life that need to go with Jesus toward the cross? The cross is our opportunity to allow God to invade our lives and to allow Jesus the Christ to come to us wherever we may be.

Through the cross, we are given the opportunity to participate in God’s radical love for the world. The cross is our connection to God, and in it, Jesus takes us closer to the heart of God as the divine shares in our sufferings. The cross is not so much about God’s act alone, but God’s act with us, for us, and in us that changes the world.

Take the time to look at your life seriously. Identify the things that need to make their way to Jerusalem with Jesus this year. The economic downturn, your job, a disease, a relationship, a family member, you name it.

Whatever it is, allow God to take it to the cross this year. Turn it over to God and let the whole of the walk into Jerusalem be yours, so that with Christ, you may go to the cross and know the empty tomb.

God, as we walk closer and closer toward your cross, help me turn my life over to you, giving you those things that need your love, mercy, and care, that through the cross and empty tomb I may come to know your resurrected life. Amen.