The cross means nothing without an empty tomb. But an empty tomb makes the cross mean everything! The resurrection changed everything.
I’ve written before about what happened during those three days Jesus was in the tomb; all that He accomplished and prophecy fulfilled. But if He hadn’t risen from the dead on the third day, all of it would be meaningless, and we would not have forgiveness of sin.
BUT GOD… raised Him on the third day, and now we have everything!
Acts 10:39–41 says: “We are witnesses of all the things he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him up on the third day and caused him to be seen, not by all the people, but by us, the witnesses God had already chosen, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to warn them that he is the one appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead. About him all the prophets testify, that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” (NET)
The movie The Passion of the Christ was a deeply impactful visual depiction of what Jesus went through on His way to and through the cross. I watched it a couple of times. It is an intense film. It impacted me deeply because I had never pondered the cross; I skipped ahead to the resurrection. On the cross, Jesus said, “It is finished,” so the forgiveness of sins was accomplished there. Our promise of Heaven came at the resurrection. We can’t have one without the other.
An empty tomb makes the cross mean everything!