This month with Good Friday and Easter marks the second episode of the December Christmas story. In the first episode we learned the (true) story of how a morally perfect but loving God came to live in the world He created, but which had become violent, cruel, aggressive and disordered. Instead of coming with mighty power to teach them all a lesson or coming within the dreaming towers of academia to convince the clever people that what was going on was all a terrible misconception of what the world was all about, He came as Jesus, as a tiny baby, to a currently unmarried couple from a despised village in Palestine. Not exactly a part of the world where celebrities and influencers came from. What is more, the couple to whom He came were homeless at the time of His birth and He was born in a cowshed. So, that is the recap.
This person, the incarnation of God, worked in His earthly dad’s carpentry shop, went as all good Jewish boys should to the temple and lived a remarkable and sinless life. At the age of about 30, He started teaching the people in the synagogue and the market about how they should live. He also showed them how they had abandoned God, put themselves first and done evil to all around. He pointed out that even the religious people who were supposed to teach and care for the people were self-centred and godless. People were excluded from God by their sin and evil and this had to be dealt with.
People, especially the religious people, took offence, rejected what He was saying and arranged for Him to be arrested. He had unjust trials before the religious authorities and then before the Roman authorities. Pilate, the current Roman governor in Jerusalem, knew that Jesus had not done anything against Roman law but, as the religious authorities had got a rabble together, and it looked as though a riot was brewing, he allowed the priests to have Jesus killed. He was crucified, the cruellest way of killing a human.
Now, we have to remember this Jesus is God Almighty come to be a man with us. He could have stopped all this happening at any time. However, He had decided to confront the self-centredness, wickedness and cruelty of this world, taking the consequences of the evil and sin of all of us on Himself. He died. God in human form died! He died to take away the consequences of the sin, that separates us from God. Now, every one of us who realises that they are sinful and separated from God and asks for forgiveness, is forgiven, and He brings them into the family of God
On the third day, Jesus came back to life. He is God and sinless, and so He was the only person who could deal with that burden of our sin and death could not hold Him.
Now, here is something to reflect on! In November, we quite rightly honour and remember the many brave soldiers who died fighting for our freedom in the war years and since. We have two services on Remembrance Day, one in church and another at the war memorial. However, on Good Friday we sometimes forget to celebrate and remember the death for us of Jesus, God incarnate, at Calvary to wipe out our sins. This year we will be having a service in church at 6.00pm on 18th April, Good Friday, to remember the death of Jesus for us. This will be a quiet service where we remember the cost of our rescue to Jesus. Two days later, at 9.30am, we will be celebrating with joy Jesus’ resurrection on Sunday 20th April, Easter Sunday. I look forward to worshipping God and saying thank you to Him; with you too perhaps?
Edwin Martin
Lay Leader