LLOYD Smale led the service on Easter Sunday when the theme was “A lot Can Happen in a Week”.

The Lenten Cross was undressed. Jesus was transformed from death to life. Jesus has transformed our lives giving us the fullness of life.

We now transform the Lenten Cross of suffering and death into a symbol of hope and resurrection by adding flowers and making it an Easter Cross.

Lloyd spoke of a comedy panel show on Radio 4 called the “Unbelievable Truth” where four celebrities bring five unbelievable truths into plain hearing amongst lots of red herrings.

The Gospel truths in plain sight are often incredible but true. The Easter narrative of the empty tomb, the cross defeated, the risen Jesus, the witnesses to the resurrection, the meals that were shared with Him are, to many people, unbelievable.

For all of us it is incredible and bewildering but it is the truth. God whose nature is characterised by love, compassion and mercy appeals to us all to simply accept the truth. To share His offer of love, compassion and mercy – this is the Easter invitation. Christ has risen – unbelievable, but true!

Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, said “a week is a long time in politics”.

This is equally applicable in Gospel times. A week was a long time for Jesus.

Jesus arrives in Jerusalem riding on a donkey. He causes a stir in the Temple, He celebrates Passover with his disciples at the Last Supper. Judas plots to betray Jesus to the Chief Priests. Jesus prays in a private garden on the Mount of Olives. He is arrested, tried, mocked, disowned, and hauled before Pilate and Herod.

He is presented to a hostile crowd and is handed over to the Roman authorities. He is crucified and entombed and THEN on the third day He is alive – He has risen as promised.

Then the disciples remember His words. Now we remember His words.

A lot happened in that momentous week in the history of the world. God in whom they live and move and have their being was present there for all. Jesus, the prophet, knew beforehand the events that were to unfold and for what purpose.

Jesus, Son of God, knows that He has authority over death and the actions caused by human weakness.

Jesus knew the truth would be told and His words would never fade away and would achieve the purposes for which He was sent.

God, in whom we live and move and have our being is still working out the purposes of Holy Week through the risen Christ and sounding out the truth of these momentous events. Christ is risen – He is risen indeed!

It is said that no preacher can make anybody believe in the empty tomb, but God can. That is God’s gift to us.

He can work through the re-telling of the Easter events to evoke faith in the hearts, souls and minds of those who hear.

This morning we have heard the good news of the Easter story from both Luke and John’s Gospels. In both these stories there is one central truth – the tomb WAS empty.

It was Mary who found the empty tomb. Peter ran to the tomb – he had to check that death was death for Jesus.

The Easter message was starting to work planting a seed of doubt in Peter’s mind – he was unsure that death was death for Jesus or not. John ran with Peter to the empty tomb and it is said that John started to believe.

Mary Magdalen becomes the first person to see the risen Jesus. Then there were two on the Emmaus Road, ten disciples on the first Resurrection Day and then a week later 11 when Thomas was with them.

He appeared to the disciples on the shore of Sea of Tiberius for a fish breakfast. He appeared to them at the Ascension.

There were many proofs that He was alive and St Paul says that more than 500 witnesses saw the risen Christ.

Amongst the many things that Jesus did over the 30 years of His life, the greatest was the laying down of His life and the taking it up again, the cross and the empty tomb.

God demonstrates His love for us in this whilst we were still sinners. Christ died for us and for our sins and for the sins of the whole of humanity.

Whether it is all considered idle talk, foolishness or a stumbling block will not alter the truth – God is God and everything that moves, lives or has its being in Him come of Him and with Him and that Easter is for us all.

The word “for us” in the original language carries a sense of concerning, for the benefit of, in place of, as a representative of. The words “for us” carry the idea that Jesus died for our benefit, in place of and because of what we and shared humanity had done and He gave His life for us.

Easter is a love story. God’s desire from the moment humans rejected His offer of the ultimate life in favour of a life as defined by their own desires.

This moment is described in Genesis in the tale of Adam and Eve and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden.

God’s desire has been to reconnect with humanity and restore all to the lives that He created them to be – the desire He expressed in the giving of the Ten Commandments, in the words of the prophets and ultimately in the promise of a Saviour.

A promise fulfilled in the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus. A promise that delivers a restored relationship with Jesus.

A promise that delivers forgiveness and a restored relationship with God. A promise that gives us the opportunity to re-set our lives. A promise which speaks to the answer that every restless heart seeks and yearns for.

Easter springs from the love of God.

Jesus came to us, so that it is and always was true that God is love and is ever ready to embrace us and is ever ready to allow us to begin again and is ever ready to allow us to re-set our lives (In computer speak – to press Control Ult and Delete!).

May the blessings of Easter fall afresh on your hearts and may God’s love, compassion and mercy prompt each to allow that love, compassion and mercy to flow through each. This is God’s desire and Easter declares it.

May the word of God accomplish what He desires and accomplish the purpose for which He sent it.

Bronwyn Nott