He set His face towards Jerusalem

"Now Jesus, going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples aside on the road and said to them, 'Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death, and deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify. And the third day He will rise again.'" Matthew 20:17-19

He was not ignorant of what lay before Him.

And yet He set His face to go to the city and to the people who would drive in the nails. The people He would weep and pray over. The people who would mock Him, strike Him, gamble over His clothes, and condemn Him.

He knew and He warned His disciples. This would be their hardest moment. This would be the darkness where hope may die and the breath catch hard with bitter shock and disapointment.

You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

Would they still speak with such confidence as they saw Him in chains?

We all know the end of this story...but what if we didn't? What if Easter unfolded for us like it unfolded for those disciples... Being warned, being told the outcome over and over again...and yet the horror, and the wonder...as they watched it unfold.

As we look to the cross this Easter season, don't take for granted that you know how the story ends. Remember the wonder, the ecstatic joy of that first Easter.

Look to the cross.

JOY ENCOUNTERs: Thanks be to God.

1.) Towels in sunlight.

2.) Encouragement on the other end of the phone. Speaking peace into my moment of grief.

3.)Those bellies great with child, and those that are not.
4.) Deer meat glop.

5.) Forsythias soon to explode.

6.) A nook to read and pray.

7.) Cousins playing spoons and trash and scrabble. Loud Love.

8.) God's financial provision...above and beyond what we could ask or think.

9.)Cleaning out and throwing away...always a sign of Spring.

10.) Accomplishing task lists.