Welcome to Day 36 of Journey to the Cross, a forty-day devotional for Easter. Today we look toward the end in Matthew 26.

When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he told his disciples, “You know that the Passover takes place after two days, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.”

Then the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the courtyard of the high priest, who was named Caiaphas, and they conspired to arrest Jesus in a treacherous way and kill him. “Not during the festival,” they said, “so there won’t be rioting among the people.”

Matthew 26:1-5

If you go to Miami, Florida, you can begin a journey of over 2,000 miles on the same highway. US Highway 41 stretches all the way to the town of Houghton in Michigan’s upper peninsula. Once near the end of the highway, a sign stood which read “End of the Earth: 2 Miles; Houghton: 4 miles.”

It only stood for a few hours on the road between Houghton and Chassell, Michigan, but the legend lives on—in print and digitally, authorized and unauthorized. There’s something particularly unforgettable about the image. Maybe it’s the fog, which adds a quintessential eerie touch which makes it seem like the road just… ends. But this was nothing more than a prank by a couple of Michigan Tech students. Yet they built the prank on the true feelings on driving on that highway. It feels like one is driving to the ends of the earth. The desolation all around reinforces the impression that the end must be near.

From a human standpoint, it looked like Jesus was coming near the end of the road. At least the chief priests and members of the ruling council of elders hoped so as the presented charges against Jesus and ruled for his arrest and death. But Jesus’s journey would not end with his trial or even with his death on the cross. Few realized it yet, but Jesus’s journey was really just getting started. What looked like the end of the road for Jesus was the beginning.

The apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:20 “But as it is, Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” He opened a new path for all who believe in him.

Today as you pray, thank God that what seems like the end of a road for us is just the beginning for him. Ask him to remind you this fact whenever you have hit a dead end.

Thank you for joining me for Day 36. Join me again tomorrow for Day 37 as we look at fees of the journey.