Easter Message

I once held a beautiful diamond of incredible value between my thumb and forefinger. As I held it up to the light, rays of light shimmered and shone through its many facets in a kaleidoscope of colours. It was mesmerising. 

As I gaze on the rough wooden cross through Holy Week, I’m reminded of this memory.  Through the events of Holy Week, in Jesus we see the fullness of the ‘Light of the World’ revealed in all His facets. From Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday and the Ascension, we see the depth of God’s love and infinite power revealed in ways that surprise, shock and bring    wondrous joy.  Because the resurrection of Christ offers reconciliation and new life with God today,  tomorrow and for eternity - and the transformation of all creation. 

As the events of our broken world grieve us and understandably may prompt us to cry out to God to ask ‘why?’, for ‘how long?’ and ‘can you resolve?’, Jesus’ passion provides our answer and brings hope.

As the theologian Jurgen Moltman wrote, in the suffering and crucified Christ, ‘God weeps with us so that one day we laugh with Him’. And ‘…. believing in the resurrection does not just mean assenting to a dogma and noting a historical fact. It means participating in this creative act of God…. Resurrection is not a consoling opium, soothing us with the promise of a better world in the hereafter. It is the energy for a rebirth of this life – life as God desires for His glory.  The hope doesn’t point to another world.  It is focused on the redemption of this one because Jesus is alive and is making all things new.’

So, as we journey onwards from Easter, we do so in the love, light and power of the risen Christ who is with us.

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” (1 Peter 1:3).

In God’s love, Richard