Remember Jesus of Nazareth,
staggering on broken feet out of the tomb
toward the Resurrection,
bearing on his body the proud insignia
of the defeat which is victory,
the magnificent defeat of the human soul
in the hands of God.
Frederick Buechner, The Magnificent Defeat

The gifts of the Master are these:
freedom, life, hope, new direction,
transformation, and intimacy with God.
If the cross was the end of the story,
we would have no hope.
But the cross isn’t the end.
Jesus didn’t escape from death;
he conquered it and opened the way to heaven
for all who will dare to believe.
The truth of this moment,
if we let it sweep over us, is stunning.
It means Jesus really is who he claimed to be,
we are really as lost as he said we are,
and he really is the only way for us to intimately and spiritually connect with God again.
Steven James, Story