Easter is a big part of Christianity. Actually, Easter (and Christmas) is the reason why all of us are here as Christians and humans today.

I was doing my Bible reading plan for Easter, and the woman who was basically making the videos for it (Tara-Leigh Cobble) said something that really caught my attention. She said, “The cross was the plan even before the world was formed.”

I’ve never actually thought about how there was a whole plan when God made the world. I knew that we were made for a bigger purpose, but I didn’t even consider that there was a plan for the cross before God made the world. It’s actually quite fascinating, really.

Anyway. Easter is the whole reason that Christians, and everybody else, have a hope and reason for living. There are also so many things that, if they didn’t happen or the prophecies weren’t fulfilled, Jesus’s crucifixion wouldn’t have happened. Take Judas for instance. Lots of people say, “Oh Judas, why would he betray his Lord and Rabbi? He’s a bad dude, I’d never be like him.” But, everything he did to Jesus was planned out. (Also, Luke 22:3 says, “Then Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, one of the Twelve.” (Luke 22:3 NIV,) so part of it was Jesus’s plan, Satan unknowingly working it for good, and working through Judas so yeah. Extra thought!)

In Psalm 41:9, David writes, “Even my closest friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.” (Psalm 41:9 ESV) This, in a way, tells how Judas betrayed Jesus. He was one of Jesus’s closest friends, (aka disciples,) and he ate the meal of the Passover (now known as Jesus’s Last Supper). He ate the bread, which Jesus said was “my body, broken for you.” Also like the Psalm, Judas ate the bread, all the while lifting his heel against Jesus.

But, even though Judas was kinda not amazing, (don’t say that if you had to be like a character in the Bible it’d be Judas,) everything he did, (good or bad) turned out for good. That’s what Jesus’s grace does. And if it hadn’t been for Judas’s betrayal, there might not be that grace for everyone, because the cross was the plan all along.

~Willow