Good morning…
I marvel at the fact that, for the calendar we keep, today is the dark day God flips our page. The B.C. measurement of time stands for “Before Christ” and our A.D. measurement of time begins “After Death.” On this dark day we remember Jesus’ broken body lying lifeless in the cold tomb … then … we reorient our entire lives to the rise of resurrection power.
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The Cross by Betty W. Skinner
The cross is the gateway to oneness with Infinity Itself. Yet we do not pass right through. We must stop and abide in the Life that we find there – the passion, the compassion of the Crucified. His is an anguishing so despairing that darkness pervaded the earth. It takes the same darkness and anguish to pierce, then to break our hearts. We seem to neglect the fact of suffering. The hope of our redemption lies in the overflowing of Divine Love pouring out of an unimaginable, immeasurable suffering.
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To rise up in oneness with Infinity Itself, we stop in the darkness of this day. We abide in the Divine Love pouring out of Christ’s suffering. We compassionately connect to the Life of the Crucified. From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”) (Matthew 27:45-46, NIV).
Out of the experience of utter darkness, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”, we surrender our life to Infinity Itself. Our firm decision is to work from this focused center: One man died for everyone. That puts everyone in the same boat. He included everyone in his death so that everyone could also be included in his life, a resurrection life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own (2 Corinthians 5:14-15, MSG).
We turn the page in today’s A.D. calendar. Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life—no longer captive to sin’s demands! What we believe is this: If we get included in Christ’s sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection. We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word. When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us. From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That’s what Jesus did (Romans 6:6-11, MSG).
…Sue…
