A Cheery Cross

I got a card in the mail the today. It was an Easter greeting card, shaped like a cross. A cheery cross: Pastel colors. Tulips. Pansies. Layers of delicate floral paper patterns. It's almost funny how we use the cross- it's feel-good symbol for love, and hope, and- most ironically- life. We've taken history's most brutal medium of execution and made a warm fuzzy out of it.

But Jesus did one better. He made it a life preserver. He endured the most painful, humiliating, and unfair death in history. And he did it for love, hope, and life.

There was something else on the front of the card. The word- no, the command- "Rejoice!" A short quotation on the inside explained why:

"Because I live, you also will live."
-John 14:19

He didn't do it for publicity. He didn't do it to prove a point. He did it so that you and I wouldn't have to. That was our punishment that He carried out. Our pain that He felt. Our failures that he took upon himself. And because He endured it and now lives, so can we.