a journey to the cross
“For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame..” — Hebrews 12:2
The title of this post is also the title of a 40-day Lenten devotional by Paul David Tripp, and I think it is the perfect way to describe what this season in the church calendar is all about.
In case you didn’t know, today is the first day of Lent. It is a time in which God gently invites us to slow down and walk more closely with Jesus. For forty days, we journey together toward the cross, but even more importantly, we are preparing our hearts for the joy of what happens three days later on resurrection morning.
You see, dear brothers and sisters, this is not a season meant to weigh us down, but one meant to draw us near. It’s not a season to engage in practices that give us dour faces, but to give ourselves to intentional reflection on all the reasons we have to celebrate because of the life, death, resurrection — the victory! — of our King, Jesus.
I like how Tripp says it in the introduction to his book:
“…it is right and beneficial to take a season of the year to reevaluate, recalibrate, and have the values of our hearts clarified once again. Lent is such a season. As we approach Holy Week, where we remember the sacrifice, suffering, and ressurction of our Savior, it’s good to give ourselves to humble and thankful mourning. Lent is about remembering the suffering and sacrifice of the Savior. Lent is about confessing our ongoing battle with sin…Lent is about giving ourselves in a more focused way to prayer, crying out for the help that we desperately need from the only one who is able to give it.”
Yes, and amen.
However, friend, Lent is also about celebrating. It is about joy, and victory, and promises. It is about life abundant, and a secured future because of all that Jesus has secured for us, and granted to those of us who believe in him, and are thus part of his family. Lent is about resurrection to new life, both now, and in the future.
As another author notes,
“In the busyness of life, Lent gives us space to breathe. In this season, we lay down distractions, confess what burdens us, and receive again the gift of forgiveness and new life.”
This Journey to the Cross, beginning once again this year, is yet another way we grow one step closer to Jesus — encouraging one another, praying for one another, and fixing our eyes on Jesus with the same determination that he set his eyes on the cross — which, in a way, was really setting his eyes on us, saving us. And when Resurrection Sunday dawns and we rejoice in Easter together, our celebration will be richer, because we have prepared our hearts along the way.
And just how might you prepare?
One way would be to pick up Tripp’s devotional (click here). Another would be to order this excellent daily liturgy I use each year by Jonathan Gibson, O Sacred Head, Now Wounded: A Liturgy for Daily Worship from Pascha to Pentecost (click here).
However you prepare, I’m praying you will, and that Jesus will draw you nearer to him as a result.
Your fellow journeyer,
Pastor Matthew
