Big things at stake

This week, being Easter week, we focus on the cross. We contemplate afresh what it means for each of us individually. In many places silence will be kept, and words will be shared to help us think it through once again, and allow the reality of it to rend our hearts anew.

As we do this as individuals, let us not lose sight of the bigger picture. The point of going to the cross was not just about redeeming a (hopefully growing) collection of individuals plucked out of humanity through all time, but it had a much much greater perspective.

To call it 'global' does not do justice. Yes global in the sense of being available to everyone everywhere, but more accurately it is 'cosmic', affecting every thing everywhere - including things unseen. The cross and resurrection has a political dimension, affecting power in all its forms: explicit and behind the scenes stuff.

Paul sums it up in Col 2:15. Having talked about redemption for believers in v14, he leaps straight into the cosmic. Authorities and powers are disarmed, a public spectacle. This is the achievement of the cross. Far bigger, far more wide ranging, far more effective than we probably can ever contemplate. But a reality nevertheless - one that as Christians we are to get used to, and get on board with.