Category Archives: Easter

Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. (Luke 23:46)

At his most desperate, at the end, having gone through the experience of abandonment, having endured humiliation, torture, and scorn, and now facing death, the final words Luke has Jesus uttering come from a song about trust in God. ‘Into your hands I commit my spirit’ is drawn from Psalm 31.

In his pain and loneliness on the cross Jesus finds solace in the scriptures which had formed, shaped and directed his life.

For me this begs the question, what stories are we so deeply embedded within that we can find solace, strength and direction in our darkest moments?

The stories that shape us, can not only bring us much consolation in times of hardship and great need, but can also shape our responses, our reaction to situations we face. Just as athletes train their muscle memory for instinctive response in competition, we can prepare ourselves to be able to respond creatively, courageously, non-violently, and with humility and grace when we face desperate situations.

The stories around us in films, on television, in the media, too often invoke a fight or flight response to injustice, violence and hardship. By soaking ourselves in the story of Jesus we prepare ourselves to follow his example of creative response, of taking up our cross, of refusal to succumb to violence and oppression in our lives and the systems we are part of. Just as Jesus was able to find strength and trust in God from the stories that had shaped him, so too we can find strength and trust in our darkest moments.

For the times when we could easily fall into despair, for the times when we could react with violence or cowardice out of fear, for the times when God may feel absent from our lives, if we truly allow ourselves to be shaped by the stories of the life, actions, teaching, death and resurrection of Jesus, if we commit ourselves with trust to God, then we too may see life come out of our own darkest moments.

Jon Dorsett

It is finished. (John 19:29-30)

The Pharisees might agree he is finished. The threat has gone and we are again in charge of the religion. We can again demand the keeping of the law as the way to go. We can again set up the tables in the temple which are so profitable for us.

The disciples, especially Peter, might agree he and we are finished. We have denied him and we have lost faith in each other. He was betrayed by Judas and all of us. We have lost touch with each other and we have lost him. But he loved us to the end. He loved us and we are bereft and in despair. He held us together and we are broken. We are a busted flush.

Where now, are all our protestations, we loved him, denied him and scattered.

The Romans might have agreed. He is finished we handed out the toughest of sentences. We don’t understand him but he was unpredictable to the end. He is safer dead: finished.

Jesus said it is finished. Come to me he said. It is finished I have done for them what they could not do for themselves. I have broken down the wall of perfection between the altar and the people. I have opened the way to God. I have shown a new way. I have made a new way. I have loved them to the end.  I am the way: The way to God and the way to know God and to walk with God.  I have redeemed them. I made them and |I died for them, to redeem them, to set them free and be mine.

We can say I am his and he is mine. We can say we are free to love him as daughter and son: As brother to the brothers and brother to the sisters. We were born in bondage cut off from our true selves and from him.  I am his true friend and servant because he suffered for me. He has carried my sins and born them away. We are released into the way of love and peace and hope.  This is the place where I am released to walk with him because I can see his wounds and know release to be who I am and know him as both creator and redeemer.  This is a new kind of Glory, a new reason for hope, as I see him I become like him.

It is finished, finished, finished, finished, finished.

Let the people claim their inheritance for it is finished, finished, finished, finished, finished!

David Randolph Horn

I thirst (John 19:28)

John’s gospel starts by telling us that “in the beginning was the Word”, that the Word was there when everything was created.

He was there when the water was separated from the land, when rivers were formed on the land.

He was there when Moses struck the rock with his stick at Horeb and water rushed forth.

He was there at the wedding at Cana when water was turned into wine.

And now he is here on the cross, he refused the drugged wine earlier, he is bleeding and dying. His mouth is parched, his tongue is sticking to the roof of his mouth and he says “I thirst”
And who responds? A soldier shares some of his thirst quenching drink.
“I was thirsty and you gave me a drink” (Matthew 25:35)

“The Word of Creation, the Word of Life has become flesh and made his dwelling amongst us”, he has become human and endured pain and thirst, he has allowed us to crucify him that we might find “living water”, that we might find life.

Mother Teresa sums up the words “I thirst” in her own reflection of Jesus’ thoughts from the Cross. “I thirst for you. I thirst to love and to be loved by you – that is how precious you are to me. Come to me, and fill your heart and heal your wounds. If you feel unimportant in the eyes of the world, that matters not at all. For me, there is no one any more important in the entire world than you. I thirst for you. Come to me. Thirst for me. Give me your life – and I will prove to you how important you are to my heart.”

Paul Magnall