Easter is a beautiful time. At first glance, it seems to be a very delicate season with pastel colors, spring flowers, baskets,and our Sunday best. Yet, behind it all was something very harsh, brutal and painful: the beating, mocking, and Crucifixion of Jesus. The fact that something so beautiful and precious could come from death is truly how the Spirit of God continues to work in our lives; that same Spirit that rose Jesus from the dead is the same Spirit that works in us. (Romans 8:11)

Jacob, my little guy, and I were talking about the Crucifixion and his question about it truly brought it all into perspective. Jacob asked if Jesus wanted to die on the cross. I thought about it for a split second; the answer was both yes and no. No, he didn't want to go through it all. Even though he had every supernatural quality inside of him, he was still flesh and blood. It was going to be a pain like no other. He was beat beyond human recognition. Isaiah 52:14 says "his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form beyond human likeness". The night that the Roman soldiers would come to arrest him, he cried and prayed until he sweat drops of blood.(Luke 22:44) He even asked God if this "cup", or this part of the process, could be skipped. And yet, Jesus said, "It is not my will, but yours". (Luke 22:42) So comes the "yes" to the question. Yes, he wanted to do the will of God. Yes, he wanted to complete the promise that his death and resurrection would bring to the entire world until the end of time. Yes, he wanted to save us and bring to us EVERYTHING that he knew of the Father.

In John 17, Jesus prays for himself, his disciples, and then for all believers. In this prayer, he prays for our protection, the power of the Holy Spirit, our sanctification and turning to the Word of God. He prays for us to know Him, His love, and the ability to share Him with the world:

I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name-the name you gave me-so that they may be one as we are one...I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them...My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe me through their message that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you...I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me...You have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory....I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them. ~John 17

This prayer is the YES to the cross. When my little girl Carly saw a cross in a book, she said, "There's the power of Jesus". I loved that and I still think of that when I see a cross. She didn't call it a cross, but "the power of Jesus". That is how I want to always see it. We can be become numb to the Truth and power of Christ, the cross, the beating, and the Crucifixion simply by hearing it over and over again. Because we know how it all turns out, we look over the pain and torture of it all. Because it was the will of God, we assume it was okay with Jesus and he was 'okay' so to speak with how it all had to be. But I pray that this Easter, we will have our eyes and hearts opened to the Truth; to the sacrifice and all that was given for us. I pray that it will change the way we see our faith; change the way we live our lives. I pray that it will change the way we enter our churches on Sunday morning and change the way we sing our songs. Thank you for the cross Lord. Thank you for the nail pierced hands.