At the foot of the Cross - a devotion for Good Friday

At the foot of the cross

A devotion for Good Friday

Using words from A Palm Sunday Service drawn up by Diana Adams

Welcome

Golgotha, the place of the skull.

The cross of Christ, on which hung the Saviour of the world.

By your hold cross you have redeemed the world.

On the cross Jesus offered himself to the Father for the whole world.

At the foot of the cross, we join our prayers with his.

We glory in your cross, O Lord, and praise and glorify your holy resurrection.

For, by virtue of the cross, joy has come to the whole world.

God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us

That your way may be known upon earth, your saving power among all nations.

We glory in your cross, O Lord, and praise and glorify your holy resurrection;

For, by virtue of the cross, joy has come to the whole world.

Hymn:  There is a green hill far away

Silence

As they led him away, they seized a man, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming from the country, and they laid the cross on him, and made him carry it behind Jesus. A great number of the people followed him, and among them were women who were beating their breasts and wailing for him. But Jesus turned to them and said, ‘Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For the days are surely coming when they will say, “Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.” Then they will begin to say to the mountains, “Fall on us”; and to the hills, “Cover us.” For if they do this when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?’

 Two others also, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him. When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. Then Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.’

Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world: have mercy on us.

Take from our lives, from our souls, from our consciences all that has offended you,

All that has hurt others, and our blindness to the needs of others.

On this day, at this time, we accept deeply in our hearts the only words that can set us free:

The words, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’

Silence

And they cast lots to divide his clothing. And the people stood by, watching; but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, ‘He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!’ The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, and saying, ‘If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!’ There was also an inscription over him, ‘This is the King of the Jews.’

 One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, ‘Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!’ But the other rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.’ Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ He replied, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.’

Lord, remember us when you come into your kingdom.

Remember us, not for the things which we hope will appear in our obituaries;

Nor for the virtues we occasionally display.

Remember us, as one of the guilty community who hung at your side,

And if life will not let us be in paradise with you today, keep a place for us, we pray.

Silence

Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, here is your son.’ Then he said to the disciple, ‘Here is your mother.’ And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.

We pray for families, where they are loving and supportive, that their joy might be kept safe.

We pray for families where they are tense, troubled, fragmented,

That they may find a way through pain,

We find ourselves among this fellowship,

Surrounded by people whose journey we have not travelled,

Whose potentials we cannot imagine,

And we know we belong to each other.

Silence

When it was noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. At three o’clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?’ which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’

Lord, by your cry of desperate honesty, rid us of superficial faith, which is afraid of the dark;

Give us when we need it, the courage to doubt, to rage, to question,

until we know we are heard.

We do not ask for easy answers to hard times – we ask for a sense of your solidarity;

That will be enough to let us know that we do not walk or cry alone;

That will enable us to go through the dark and find light again.

Silence

After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in order to fulfil the scripture), ‘I am thirsty.’ A jar full of sour wine was standing there. So they put a sponge full of the wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth. 

Lord, you have made us.

Wee have had these bodies and minds long enough to learn to live with our limitations.

Yet, despite this, something in us yearns, thirsts for something better,

something greater which we know is there.

We sense the disappointment in dashed hopes that deserve to be fulfilled;

In missed opportunitiets which should have led to joy, not frustration;

In people whose potential has been buried or denied, and deserves to flourish.

So much of life demands a  resolution.

So thank you for this incompleteness,

Thank you for this yearning,

Thank you for this thirst.

Thank you for giving us enough of you to want more,

And so sense the fullness of eternity within the limits of time.

Silence

When Jesus had received the wine, he said, ‘It is finished.’

Lord, you have convinced us of our sin, and you have forgiven it.

You have convinced us of your way, and have engaged us on it.

You have sown us a foretaste of heaven and have made us members of its commonwealth.

Having overcome the sin of the world, death will be small obstacle.

Just as you foretold that you would be handed over to be crucified, it came true;

Also, you foretold, on the third day you will rise again.

And we will be your witnesses.

Silence

Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, ‘Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.’

Having said this, he breathed his last. When the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God and said, ‘Certainly this man was innocent.’ And when all the crowds who had gathered there for this spectacle saw what had taken place, they returned home, beating their breasts. But all his acquaintances, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.

Go … God who before birth called you into being, now calls you back … and we let you go.

Go to heaven, where you will welcome those who die in your faith,

Whose death, with your death, we remember.

Cheered by the prospect of the day when there will be no more death or parting,

And all shall be well, and all shall be one,

May they who have died before us be among the first to welcome us to heaven,

Where, with you enthroned in glory, we shall share the everlasting feast of your family.

Till then, keep us in faith, fill us with hope, deepen us through love, to the glory of your holy name.

Amen.

Hymn:  When I survey the wondrous cross

Maundy Thursday Communion

Maundy Thursday Communion Service

Our service begins as we break bread and share the cup just as Jesus did at the Last Supper, long ago.

We will then share in a reflective walk as we go into the dark of the evening into the garden and in our mind’s eye re-visit the garden, the courtyard and come to the foot of the cross.

We will then return to the church and share in a meditation as we look to the cross.

Let’s be quiet for a few moments …

On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed, his disciples said to him, ‘Where do you want us to go and make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?’ So he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, ‘Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you; follow him, and wherever he enters, say to the owner of the house, “The Teacher asks, Where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?” He will show you a large room upstairs, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.’ So the disciples set out and went to the city, and found everything as he had told them; and they prepared the Passover meal.

Hymn 300 Jesus, we thus obey

When it was evening, he came with the twelve. And when they had taken their places and were eating, Jesus said, ‘Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.’ They began to be distressed and to say to him one after another, ‘Surely, not I?’ He said to them, ‘It is one of the twelve, one who is dipping bread into the bowl with me. For the Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that one by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that one not to have been born.’

While they were eating, he took a loaf of bread,

A Prayer of blessing

 and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to them, and said, ‘Take; this is my body.’

Share the bread

Then he took a cup,

A prayer of thanksgiving

 and after giving thanks he gave it to them, and all of them drank from it. He said to them, ‘This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Truly I tell you, I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.’

Share the cup

The Lord’s Prayer

When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

Hymn 124 When my love to God grows weak,

As we journey with Jesus and his friends, we will travel from the shadows of the garden, hearing the shouts of soldiers and the clash of swords to the busyness of a crowded courtyard.  We will stand at the foot of the cross with the crowd and then return to reflect on the difference the cross made to one and makes for all.

Let’s set off now on the journey and make our way to the first signpost.

Station 1 – Gethsemane

The Prayer

Stand together at the signpost pointing the way to Gethsemane

Voice 1:  The night was dark and silent.  Jesus knew that his enemies would soon be upon him.  He and his friends went to a place they knew well – a garden where olive trees grew.  Let’s make our way to Gethsemane now.

(Stand on the grass near the tree at the front of the church)

The story

Jesus asked his friends to keep watching and praying as he went forward alone into the garden.

Voice 2: He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed ‘Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will but yours be done’ An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him.  (Luke 22 v 41 – 43)

Voice 1:  Jesus wanted more than anything to do what his Father God wanted.  What lay ahead would be his greatest challenge.  He would soon be surrounded by a violent mob who wanted to arrest him and kill him, though Jesus had done nothing wrong.  So the first thing he did was pray, and God gave Jesus the inner strength he needed by sending an angel.

Reflection  / voice 2:  Sometimes, when things seem too difficult to face, everything in us wants to run away from them.  Jesus showed real courage by turning first to God in prayer.

Response / voice 1:  Take the white ribbon and tie it to one of the branches of this tree so that the other end of it touches the ground.  Perhaps there is a challenge you are facing that seems too difficult to overcome.  As you look at the ribbon touching the earth let it remind you of the angel God sent from heaven to strengthen Jesus.  Pray that God will give you the courage you need.

Quietly go to the next signpost.                  

Station 2 – The courtyard

The denial

Stand together at the signpost pointing the way to the courtyard.

Voice 1:  A long night had begun.  Jesus was arrested and taken away, but what happened next was very confusing.  Through the night he was taken from place to place, questioned, mocked, rejected and finally sentenced to die.  It was all very frightening.  Most of Jesus’ friends ran away, but his best friend Peter tried to stay very close.  He followed the crowd to the courtyard of the high priest, Caiaphas.  He tried not to think about the words Jesus had said just a few hours before at the special meal; ‘Peter, before the cock crows you will deny me three times’

Let’s walk together to the courtyard

The story – The courtyard was full of people.  There were soldiers and servants, curious strangers, dogs, children and Peter the disciple.  In the firelight one of the serving women stared at Peter.  ‘Hey you’ she shouted at him.  Peter jumped.  ‘You know Jesus don’t you?’  ‘No’ said Peter firmly.  The woman turned towards a man standing nearby.  She pointed at Peter.  ‘He knows Jesus, I’m sure he does’  ‘No I don’t’ said Peter even more loudly.  The man looked at him curiously ‘I reckon you do know him’ he said.  ‘No. No. No!’ shouted Peter. ‘I have never seen him in my life’ At that moment the cock crowed.  Peter remembered Jesus’ words and pushed his way out of the courtyard.  It was the most terrible moment of his whole life.

Reflection / voice 2:  I wonder why Peter didn’t say ‘yes’?  I wonder what kind of a feeling he had?  

Response:  We all make wrong choices, say hurtful words. Do unkind things.  You might remember a time when you let someone down or were let down yourself.  As you look at the fire in the courtyard imagine dropping your regret into the flames, and remember that God forgives everything.

Voice 3:  If we tell God the things we have done wrong, God can always be trusted to forgive us and take away our sins (1 John 1:9) 

Voice 4:  God says turn back to me!  I have rescued you and swept away your sins as though they were the morning mist (Isaiah 44) 

Voice 5: God willingly forgives and God’s love is always there (Psalm 86:5)

Quietly follow the guide to the next signpost.

Station 3 – Golgotha

The promise

Stand together at the sign pointing to Golgotha

Voice 1:  the Jewish leaders handed Jesus over to Pilate, the Roman Governor, to be sentenced.  But Pilate couldn’t find anything that he was guilty of.  The crowd turned against Jesus and shouted louder and louder, ‘Crucify him!  Crucify him!  Finally Pilate gave in and soldiers led Jesus off.  They put a purple robe around his shoulders and a crown of thorns upon his head.  Jesus was made to carry a heavy cross on his shoulders to a hill outside the city wall, called the place of the skull. 

Let us walk together to Golgotha – gather in front of the three crosses.

The story:  Jesus was crucified on a cross.  Two criminals had also been sentenced to death and were crucified that day with Jesus.  One of the criminals began shouting insults at Jesus.  ‘Aren’t you the Christ?  Then save yourself, and us.’  But the other criminal stopped him and said, ‘you should fear God!  We are getting what we deserve, but this man has done nothing wrong.’  Turning to Jesus he said ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’  Jesus looked at him with love and said ‘I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.’

Reflection / voice 2:  The cross is a sacred symbol for Christians because it helps them remember that Jesus died so that those who believe in him, like the thief who was sorry, will be forgiven and have a new start.

Response:  Use natural materials that you find around you to make a cross on the ground.  As you do this think about the things that have happened in your life or in the world that have gone wrong and need forgiveness.  When others see your cross it will help remind them that our God is a loving God who forgives everyone who is truly sorry.

We return to church to reflect on the difference Jesus made to that thief on the cross, the difference Jesus makes to us all.

We return to church for a reading of Ateemos

Hymn 131 When I survey the wondrous cross

Words of Blessing

Do you love me?

I thought I had come to the end of our series on questions as now I plan to turn to Holy Week and Easter.

And then I listened to Thought for the Day on Friday morning.

It was the Chief Rabbi, Ephraim Mervitz, and he began like this …

“A Rabbi was once asked, Why do Jews always answer a question with a question?

He replied, “Well, why not?”

Mayoutics is the name given to learning through asking challenging questions: the term comes from the Greek meaning mid wife.

Socrates argued that enquiry is the greatest tool we have to give birth to knowledge.

The best selling author, Warren Berger in his latest book, Four Beautiful Questions, the power of enquiry to spark break-through ideas demonstrates that the most creative and successful people tended to be expert questioners.  By mastering the art of enquiry, they raise the questions no one else is asking and find the answers everyone else is seeking.

Next week Jewish families around the world will be celebrating the festival of Passover at home, sitting around a dining table at a wonderful service called a Seder, where we recount our miraculous exodus from slavery in Egypt some three thousand years ago.

The key participants at our Seder tables will be the children.

The Passover story is told in response to the questions we encourage our children to ask.

As a result Passover could be dubbed the Festival of Questions.

Our tradition considers it a sacred task to inspire children to ask, probe and explore.

We take their questions seriously.  We respond by drawing on the healthy debate of our sages over many centuries, vibrant arguments that continue to challenge our intellect.

To question is not a rejection.  Rather, it is seen by our intensely discursive tradition as a way of refining our understanding of the truth and the part we must play in the universe.

Successful entrepreneurs will tell you that companies in their infancy start out by asking lots of questions.  Unfortunately they ask fewer and fewer questions as time goes on.

To succeed we must keep thinking in an inquisitive and challenging way, through continuously seeing the everyday world around us through fresh eyes and curious minds,

Questions can challenge assumptions and become the starting point of breath-taking innovation.

Asking the right question can produce a life-changing moment.

For example, instead of asking a demoralising question such as ‘why does this always happen to me?’ one can ask an empowering question such as ‘how can I use this experience to contribute to the lives of others’

Insightful questions motivate us more than resolutions

If you understand how to ask the right question you are more than half way to the answer.

Sometimes the questioning runs out.

Stuff happens that makes it hard to find the will to ask the right kind of question.

Maybe it is at that moment that Jesus has just the right question to ask of us.

We cannot get to Easter and the joy of resurrection without walking through the pain of Holy Week.

I hope we can take the opportunity to make that journey this week.

Take time for quiet reflection, maybe as this service finishes and share in our outside experience of Easter.

Go to the garden and to the courtyard, to the cross and to the grave … and discover through the pain a pathway to the newness of life that Christ brings.

Come to one or other of our reflective services as we gather together on Maundy Thursday to reflect on a body broken and blood shed for  us.

Come to the foot of the cross on Good Friday morning and walk through the town centre from Mid day.

Join us at the Quarry Car Park as we go up Cleeve hill to mark the start of Easter Day at 8-00, join us for breakfast and for our services next Sudnay.

In your mind’s eye live the journey as it brings you to new life as well.

Is thee one question to ask that opens the way to something new for you?

Or is there a question Jesus might ask of you.

As I was reflecting on Holy Week and sharing in that walk from the Garden of Gethsemane to the courtyard, from the cross to resurrection, one element in the story came to my mind … that I felt was helpful and could be helpful to  us all.

I want us to walk that walk with Peter.

Not once, not twice, but three times in the Garden Jesus asked Peter and James and John to pray.

Not once, not twice, but three times they could not stay awake and watch and pray.

It seems so simple.

In so many instances in our lives, maybe facing difficult times, difficult choices, difficult circumstances, maybe facing unexpected illness, things that weigh us down or bring us low, we know there is a call to pray.

And yet we find we cannot.

The prayer won’t come.

Like Peter we fail.

In the  moment in the garden the failure isn’t resolved.

It’s left there.  Hanging.

But in spite of his failure Peter moves on.

We move to the Courtyard.

Not once, not twice, but three times,

Peter is recognised.

You also were with Jesus the Galilean.

This man was with Jesus of Nazareth

Certainly, you are one of them for your accent betrays you.

Not once, not twice, but three times

Peter is adamant

I do not know what you are talking about

I do not [expletive deleted] know the man

I do not [multiple expletives deleted] know the man.

Not once, not twice, but three times

A denial

And at that moment the cock growed.

Then Peter remembered what Jesus had said, “Before the cock crows, you will deny me three times.”  And he went out and wept bitterly.

Are there moments when we are not willing to own up to being followers of Jesus.

It’s easier to keep quiet.

We don’t want to get involved.

We don’t want to take a stand.

We don’t want to know him, Jesus our Lord.

We let God down, we let Jesus down, we let ourselves down …

And deep down we can feel the bitterness of the tears.

But in spite of his failures Peter moves on.

He’s there when news comes of the empty tomb.

He’s beaten in the chase by the younger John, but he sees for himself the tomb is empty.

And in that upper room, he sees for himself.

And knows, Jesus is risen, he is risen indeed.

And it is on his home stomping ground, around the fishing boats of his beloved Galilee he meets Jesus one more time.

Not once, not twice, but three times

Jesus asks a question.

Simon, Son of John, do you love me more than these?

Simon, Son of John, do you love me?

Simon, Son of John, do you love me?

Not once, not twice, but three times, Peter answers

Yes, Lord, you know that I love you

Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.

Lord, you know everything, you know that I love you.

That’s what Jesus asks of us.

Not perfection.

Not an ability to pray no matter the circumstances

Not a commitment that is flawless

That’s what Jesus asks of us

Do you love me?

It is as we reply not once, not twice but three times, and simply affirm our love for Jesus that somehow the failings in prayer, the failings in commitment are knocked on the head – and a way of following Jesus opens up for us.

But what thing more remains.

Not once, not twice, but three times

Jesus had something for Peter to do.

Feed my lambs

Tend my sheep

Feed my sheep

That’s it … that’s the task – to bring that kind of caring love to others – for in doing that we make Christ’s love come alive.

|It takes me back to those questions … and that thought for the day.

Asking the right question can produce a life-changing moment.

For example, instead of asking a demoralising question such as ‘why does this always happen to me?’ one can ask an empowering question such as ‘how can I use this experience to contribute to the lives of others’

Insightful questions motivate us more than resolutions

If you understand how to ask the right question you are more than half way to the answer.

Maybe that’s the most insightful question of all, how can I use this experience to contribute to the lives of others and feed those sheep?

The wonder of the cross

I spotted it on Tuesday evening.  I have a weather app on my phone that told me there was to be a major magnetic storm, registering 7 on the kp index.  That’s high.   It’s usually 1,2, or 3 … I had never seen it so high.

I instantly went to another app from NASA called Space weather.  That enables you to access live pictures from the NASA telescopes that are trained on the sun.  You can then put pictures from the last 48 hours together into a mini video.  And there you could see it – massive prominences coming off the sun.

What did not occur to me was that there might be a stunning Aurora Borealis to be seen.  And there in the Echo a couple of days later was a spectacular photograph taken on Cleeve hill of the Northern Lights.

So near and yet so far.  I could have gone and had a look!

What a missed opportunity.

At least we caught the solar eclipse on Friday, projectred in the most wonderful of ways through a Colander that’s something of a family heirloom.

When Brian Cox tried to explain the Northern Lights in his book and TV programme the Wonders of the Solar System he found the scientific language inadequate to describe the wonders of what he saw.  He turned instead to ancient Nordic stories that told of dancing lights – because somehow it was through the imagination of the story-teller that the wonder was best communicated.

For me, something similar happens when we come to think of the cross of Christ.

Today, a fortnight before Easter, is  Passion Sunday, the Sunday when churches often focus on the story of the passion, the cross of Christ.  In this evening’s service we are going to do just that. 

We mark Passion Sunday today with a special service this evening that takes us on the journey Jesus made to Jerusalem, to his death and to his resurrection.  We are going to tell the story of that journey from Luke’s Gospel as we are reading through Luke’s gospel on Sunday evenings.  We are going to tell the story in words and music with readings shared by the choir.  Our service will be very much in the style of and in the spirit of the many services Diana has put together over the years for Passion tide.  Indeed, we shall be using prayers and readings that Diana has used at such services over the years.

It’s not inappropriate as Diana, her mother and her family placed the cross at the front of the church in memory of her father, Talvan Rees.

One approach to understanding the cross of Christ is to  use the language of doctrine with very precise meanings, almost a kind of scientific approach that spells out exactly what Jesus accomplished through his death.

I don’t find that helpful.

Indeed. I find it positively unhelpful.

In the cross of Christ, indeed in the life, the death and the resurrection of Christ something happens that is a mystery, it is a wonder, it is something at the very heart of the faith that cannot be defined in the quasi scientific language that traditional Christian doctrine sometimes uses.

I find sometimes that it is in story telling that something of the immensity of what happened is conveyed.  I love the story telling of C.S.Lewis in the Narnia Chronicles and especially in the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Once C.S.Lewis was asked who Aslan was.  He gave a very indirect answer … but you cannot help but recognise so much of the story of Christ.  All sorts of things are there.

That wonderful feeling as Aslan is near.

The strength.

There is a battle and an apparent defeat.

Yet the victory finally is Aslan’s.

It’s as if on the cross the battle between good and evil, God and the reality of evil comes to its climax – at first it seems to be defeat – but then it becomes a great victory.

Thanks be to  God, says Paul at the end of 1 Corinthians 15 when he has explored the meaning of the life, death and resurrection of Christ, Thanks be to God who gives us the victory thourh our Lord Jesus Christ.

Talk of the cross of Chrsit as the moment of the victory of Christ over all that is evil was the way the cross was understood for a 1000 years.

It’s a powerful image.

But then … Aslan is slain on the stone table – there are echoes of sacrficice.  The Lion becomes a lamb in one of the later Narnia Chronicles and as John the Baptist says, Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

There is a strong sense in the days of the bible that we live in a broken world – broken relationships, broken society, broken nations, a broken relationship with God.

To set things right people turned to sacrifice – in all sorts of different ways, to say thanks, to bring freedom in the Passover lamb, one of the common threads in the tradition of sacrifice is that it is about restoring broken relationships, and the brokenness of the relationship we have with  God.

That’s the sense you have as Aslan is slain … that in a perverse way, what happens sets things right, restores things that are broken.

Thinking of the death of Christ people speak of it as atonement, an old English word that really can be broken down into its constituent parts – at – one – ment

John pointed at Jesus and said, Behold the lamb of God.  Jesus broke bread and shared a cup around the time of the Passover and went to his death according to John’s gospel around the time the Passover lambs were sacrificed.

The focal point for the presence of God with his people was in the Temple – and in the holiest of holy places – that presence of God can only be accessed as animals were sacrificed.  Their screams would have filled the sky and the stench would have been awful.

At that point Jesus body is broken, his blood is shed.  And now there is no longer need for any more sacrifices because this is the once-and-for all sacrifice that means the relationship with God is restored, the veil of the temple is torn apart and we can enter into the very presence of God with the confidence of faith, the assurance of hope and a readiness to put our faith and hope into action in love.

We come to the foot of the cross and hear Jesus say to us even now, Father, forgive them … and we know that forgiveness is real.   This is love, as John said in 1 John 4, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be an atoning sacrifice for our sins, the means by which our sins are forgiven.

This is wonderful .. it’s a mystery.

And it is most wonderfully communicated in the story telling of the Narnia Chronicles and in The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe – do join us on Saturday afternoon if you can!

It’s a mystery

It’s beyond all our imagining.

It’s a life

It’s a death

It’s a resurrection

So come to Narnia

The magic world where

Aslan is king

And discover that that life,

That death, that resurrection

Changes everything.

But there is more to this life, death and resurrection than that

Someone has asked the question that we are considering today … When in his life did Jesus realise that he came to die as a sacrifice?

I’m not altogether sure he did.

I have a feeling that was one way, and only one way that people following in his footsteps saw what had happened.

There are others too.

Follow the story of Jesus in the Gospels and something else can be seen as well.

There comes a point in Luke’s telling of the story of Jesus when for the first time Jesus speaks about his impending death.  Luke’s not the first to notice that – Mark had done before him, and Matthew also tells the story in the same way.

It’s the climax to the first part of the story of Jesus.  He takes time out, as Mark and Matthew make clear, near the Herodian Roman city of  Caesarea Philippi to check how effectively his work of proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God and bringing healing to hurting people is going. 

‘Do the crowds get it?’ is the question he asks of the disciples.

Yes, indeed they do! 

The have come to see that Jesus has brought to fulfilment the whole  line of the prophets that stretches back to Elijah and beyond.  He has come to usher in God’s rule on earth just as God’s earth prevails on heaven.  

A prophet, he is yet more than a prophet.  He is the anointed one of God who is King in the Kingdom of God.

It’s at that point that Peter and the disciples are excited, expecting him to be an all-conquering hero Messiah.  But Jesus thinks differently and explains he is to be rejected, he is to suffer, he is to be killed … and on the third day rise again from the dead.

Three times Jesus describes his the climax to his life in terms of his suffering, his death and his resurrection.

It’s as if he is working out and bringing to fulfilment the role he had taken on from John the Baptist of the prophet.  That’s how he had described himself the very first time he taught in the synagogue in Nazareth.

As Jesus draws near to Jerusalem he has no doubt about what he is doing.  He is absolutely clear.  He is going head to head with the powers that be … challenging the very nature of the worldly understanding of power and offering a totally different way of understanding God’s rule in the world, God’s kingdom.

At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, ‘Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.’ He said to them, ‘Go and tell that fox for me, “Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed away from Jerusalem.”

Jesus thinks of his own impending death as something that fulfils all the prophets are about. 

Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.” ’

When Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey that was a massive prophetic act that said, God’s way of ruling is totally different from the world’s way of thinking.

When he turned the Herodian money changers out of the temple that was a massive prophetic act that said, God’s house should be a house of prayer, not the den of thieves the powers that be of his generation had turned it into.

He knew full well that going head to head with the powers that be would have one outcome.

And this is where Jesus, great prophet that he was, was more than a prophet.   Peter too had got it right when he had said, You are the Christ, the Messiah, the son of the living God.  But Jesus was not going to be the warrior messiah who would overthrow Rome by might of arms.  He would be the suffering servant messiah who would bring the kingdom of heaven down to earth and see that God’s will was done on earth as it is in heaven in a very different way.

This Jesus walks a walk of love and compassion that doesn’t make sense in the world’s terms, but is life-transforming for all those who take it seriously.

This Jesus walks a walk that takes him through the suffering of the valley of the shadow of death, that plumbs the depths of god-forsakenness … a walk that draws him to resurrection and the presence of God’s eternal love.

His life, his death and his resurrection open up for us the way into the presence of the God who is love – it’s a way that we can follow as we live a life of love for one another.

This is nothing other than the way of the cross.

Wow, it’s a mystery.

Maybe we can only sense it by telling the story

On Tuesday we are having Messy Church – a celebration for Easter.

It’s the first time we are going to have our Experience Easter outside to share.   Then from then through to the week after Easter we are going to have four places around the grounds of the church that simply invite us to re-live the story of the life of Jesus as it reaches its climax in death and resurrection.   They are, if you like, living pictures of the Easter story.

For it is as we put ourselves in the picture and re-live that story that the Cross of Christ becomes part of us and transforms our lives.

It’s a mystery

Beyond all our understanding

So look to some pictures,

Step into them

And discover a life, a death and

A resurrection that

Changes everything!