Revisiting the Cross

It was just one week ago that we "celebrated" Good Friday.  What do you see?  What comes to your mind when you see these three crosses--never just one, but also the ones that held the two thieves? 

Surely there is the history of the cross as the instrument of torture and death.  There is also the religious fact that the cross stood for the condemnation of God.  You were just executed.  You were put out of the Kingdom of God itself. 

So when Jesus is put to death on a cross--he suffers the worst torture and the condemnation of God.  He dies the criminal cursed of God! 

This is the message of Easter--that this man we executed and believed accursed of God--this Jesus, God raised up.  All condemnations pardoned.  Nobody put out of the kingdom.  Nothing beyond the love of God.

How does that feel to you a week later?  Has the day passed?  Has the gift of new life come?