Happy Easter

Monday, 18 April 2011 11:16

I hope that you will enjoy a wonderful Easter.  This is the most important celebration in the Christian year and we need to make the most of it!  Anyone who wants to know what life is all about needs to listen to the Easter message, because it takes us to the heart of life.

Good Friday is a day of horrifying brutality.  However many times you hear the story the agony is undiminished.  Here we meet violence and injustice that have to make us wince.  And in the midst of it all we meet the quiet dignity of Jesus, the target of mockery and relentless abuse.  As he hung on the cross it is obvious that he is not there because of his own sin.  He is there because of the sin of the world.  He is there because of my sin and yours.

Easter Saturday must have been a day of sheer mystery for Jesus’ disciples.  They felt totally let down and abandoned.  Their hopes were shattered.  They were certainly completely unprepared for the news of the women early on the Sunday morning.  They had been around long enough to know that dead people don’t rise from the dead.

It is hard to exaggerate the surprise of the disciples on Easter Day.  When they met the Risen Jesus their feelings of abandonment and hopelessness were instantly rubbed out and replaced with a new energy for living.  Their lives had been turned upside down.

May the joy of the Easter message transform your life and give you new hope and confidence for the future.