Welcome to Day 35 of Journey to the Cross, a forty-day devotional leading to Easter. Today we begin to examine the power in the journey. We need to pause, to rest, and to breathe for a moment, for Jesus’s journey reaches a pivotal point. We have now entered the final hours as we observe Holy Week.

Take some time to pause as you come into this week. Rest in God’s presence as you read God’s Word. Breathe deeply and reflect on the breath of life that fills your lungs. Consider that on the cross, Jesus’s lungs couldn’t expand properly for him to breathe. Just take a few moments to rest, consider, and pray as we enter this time.

We begin this week by doing something a bit different. I want us to begin with prayer on our lops and to continue in prayer through each day in the week ahead as we walk step by step toward the empty tomb on Sunday morning. Join me in praying something like this:

“Lord Jesus, send Your Spirit to join us together this Holy Week. Let Him journey with me now, as I have journeyed with You in preparation for this holy moment. remind me to pause amid my busy week so that I might contemplate the weight of your love.

Let me rest in Your presence and be revived by Your sustaining power. Breathe new life into me. Heal my brokenness. In these final days, strengthen my steps that I may continue to journey with you. Amen.”

While I was in the Army, we would occasionally have long ruck marches. I remember my first one, we had been marching for about ten miles or so and then the barracks came into view. Several people were excited that we were almost back, but I thought surely, we couldn’t have already been done. I chuckled as we marched past the barracks and continued for another several miles away from them. By the time the barracks came into view again, we were sore, tired, and ready to be done. Our leaders came by and reminded us that we were on the home stretch. Almost done. We just had to make it back to the barracks. This gave everyone renewed vigor to finish the march. That is the way it is when you are almost there. Especially after a long journey, “We’re almost there” are welcome words.

Holy Week is the beginning of the end of Christ’s journey to the cross. This home stretch, however, is no stroll down easy street. The events demand the use of superlative language. This is the longest, hardest, and darkest part of the journey. Jesus suffered the worst pain and experienced utmost separation from God. We will never fully comprehend all that He endured for us.

By the end of the week, we will again turn to superlative language. But those words will be quite different. Jesus’s resurrection victory demands that we use superlative language. The empty tomb is the greatest, sweetest, brightest, most glorious site we have seen as Jesus is exalted to the highest place of honor on earth and in heaven. Take heart, for we are almost there.

Today as you pray, ask the Holy Spirit to draw near to you. Ask Him to help you pause to experience the full weight of this sacred time.

Thank you for joining me for day 35. Join me tomorrow as we near the end of the road.