April 2020

Good Friday

It’s our grandson’s birthday today, so we caught up via Zoom and sang Happy Birthday. We won’t be visiting him today - or anytime soon.

Today is also Good Friday, the day hot cross buns are eaten and the day Jesus died over 2000 years ago. The most important thing to mention today.

Last November we holidayed in Israel and visited the place where many believe Jesus was crucified. Golgotha - the place of the skull. This area was an old quarry from which stone was taken for building work in the Old City. It was an ancient place of execution. On the side of the cliff, the remains of a skull like face can still be seen although the ‘nose’ dropped off a few years ago.

This painting by Jon McNaughton depicts what that place may have looked like on the day Jesus died. Crucifixions took place on a wooden cross (hence the cross on the buns) and the greatest Good for the whole of mankind happened on that day (hence 'Good' Friday).

John chapter 3 verse 16, the most famous verse from the Bible (probably), explains it better than I could....

“For God so [greatly] loved and dearly prized the world, that He [even] gave His [One and] only Son, so that whoever believes and trusts in Him [as Saviour] shall not perish, but have eternal life.” (Amplified version).

Saturday 11th April

A quiet day in the garden. Good to know that the plants keep on growing no matter what’s going on in the world.

Easter Sunday

I watched an excellent production of Jesus Christ Superstar on Friday evening. The only trouble was, it totally missed out the end of the story. The best bit - when Jesus comes back to life again!                              

When we were in Jerusalem last November, the day we visited Golgotha, we also visited the tomb that many believe was where Jesus’ body was laid. It certainly fits the bill. It says at the end of John’s Gospel, ‘At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid.....they laid Jesus there.’

The tomb was just outside the old city wall in an ancient garden (that had a wine press and a water cistern) and was just along a bit from the skull face in the side of the cliff. Very close in fact. It was very special to just sit there, drinking in the atmosphere and imagine was it must have been like that first Easter Day. Grieving women finding an empty tomb and Mary meeting Jesus himself in the garden. Discovering that He had come back to life again, just as He said He would.

By coming back to life, Jesus showed that he had destroyed death itself. Today he offers 'abundant', everlasting Life. That’s what Easter is all about and that’s what gives me hope.