A Meditation for the First Sundy of Easter 2026

provided by the Revd. Barbara Irrgang-Buckley

… and I do not know where they have laid him.

2

Hymns of praise let us sing,

Unto Christ, our heavenly king,

Who endured the cross and

Sinners to redeem and save,

Collect for Easter Day

Almighty God, through your only-begotten Son Jesus Christ
you have overcome death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life:
Grant that, as by your grace going before us you put into our minds good desires,
so by your continual help we may bring them to good effect;
through Jesus Christ our risen Lord who is alive and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Reading from Acts 10: 34-43

Gospel according to John 20: 1-18

Good Friday 2026

Matthew 27:45 – 51

When we sang ‘See amid the winter’s snow’ at Christmas time, we included the verse

Sacred Infant, all divine,
what a tender love was Thine,
thus to come from highest bliss
down to such a world as this!

‘Such a world as this’. A world full of violence, prejudice, hatred and war. A polluted environment that seeks to accelerate its own demise. A world in which 21st century technology is deployed under a moral compass little changed from that of cave-dwellers.

Seriously, if you were God, and had created this world as a haven of love and peace, surely you would simply give up, walk away and start again from scratch. (Perhaps without serpents this time).

But thanks be to God, you’re not God. (Even though some people seem to think they are). The God who created us, who loves and protects us, won’t give up trying. Every time we fall, He picks us up and gives us the opportunity to reset. We witness His sacrificial gift as He willingly climbs the Cross – as the song says, ‘hands that flung stars into space to cruel nails surrendered.’

Through our tears as we stand at the foot of the Cross and witness His Crucifixion on this Good Friday, we have the privilege of looking beyond the day unto a day of joy as we are assured of His life – then, today and tomorrow. We leave our past behind as we walk away from Golgotha, the place of the skull.

Jesus Lives; Thy terrors now
Can, O Death, no more appal us.
Allelujah!

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Lent 6 2026

Collect

Most merciful God, who by the death and resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ delivered and saved the world: Grant that by faith in him who suffered on the cross, we may triumph in the power of his victory; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Matthew 21:1 – 11

When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, ‘Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, just say this, “The Lord needs them.” And he will send them immediately.’* This took place to fulfil what had been spoken through the prophet, saying,

‘Tell the daughter of Zion, Look, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’

The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. A very large crowd* spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting,

‘Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!’

When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, ‘Who is this?’ The crowds were saying, ‘This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.’

Matthew 27:27 – 44

The governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand. Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, king of the Jews!” they said. They spat on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.

As they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene, named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross. They came to a place called Golgotha (which means “the place of the skull”). There they offered Jesus wine to drink, mixed with gall; but after tasting it, he refused to drink it. When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots. And sitting down, they kept watch over him there. Above his head they placed the written charge against him: this is Jesus, the king of the Jews.

Two rebels were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!” In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! He’s the king of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” In the same way the rebels who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him.

Our two readings from the Gospel take place within only a few days – yet they could not be more different. In one, the crowd are waving palms and greeting Jesus as the Son of God, the Promised one – less than a week later, that same crown are baying for His death, provoked by self-regarding leaders who even admit their machinations: “You don’t realize that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed”, says Caiaphas in John 11:50. He is thinking of pacifying the Roman Occupiers and preventing rebellion – but despite his learning, he doesn’t realise that the prophesied Messiah is given to the world, not just the Jews, the ‘chosen ones’. The ‘One Man’ he mentions, who happens to be the Son of God, will die for every woman, man and child in all of creation.

People often ask the question Why did Jesus have to die? I came across the following from a Christian philosopher, Alan Dotchin, who succinctly discusses the various theological replies:

In Christian theology, the crucifixion is not merely a martyrdom or political execution; it is the central act of God’s redemptive plan for humanity. Several key doctrines stem from this belief:

1. Atonement
The doctrine of atonement teaches that Jesus’ death paid the penalty for human sin, reconciling humanity with God. As the “Lamb of God” (John 1:29), Jesus’ sacrifice is seen as the fulfilment of Old Testament sacrificial practices.

2. Substitution and Sacrifice
Jesus is often seen as a substitute, taking upon himself the punishment deserved by others. As Isaiah 53 prophesied, “He was pierced for our transgressions.”

3. Victory over Sin and Death
In the Christus Miles (Christ the soldier) model, Jesus’ death and resurrection represent a victory over the powers of sin, death, and evil. The cross is not defeat—it is triumph.

4. Love and Grace
The crucifixion is viewed as the ultimate demonstration of divine love. As John 3:16 proclaims: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.” The cross reveals a God who suffers with and for humanity.

These things are worth meditation and thought, as we enter this Holy Week – but the even more important question that we can only answer for ourselves, is embodied in twelve straightforward words written by Charles Wesley.

How can it be, That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

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Lent 5 2026

Collect

Most merciful God,
who by the death and resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ
delivered and saved the world:
Grant that by faith in him who suffered on the cross,
we may triumph in the power of his victory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

John 11:1 – 45 – The Death of Lazarus

11 Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. ² It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. ³ So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.”

Lazarus and his sisters were close friends with Jesus. They turn to Him in times of trouble, and Lazarus’ illnes is certainly trouble – he is the breadwinner of the family, and they depend on him for their wellbeing.

 ⁴ But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

⁵ Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. ⁶ So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.

This has to be one of the greatest puzzles in Scripture. Lazarus is desperately ill; a friend’s natural response would be to make haste to his bedside. Instead, Jesus stays where He is. ‘Some friend He is’, people are thinking. One explanation for Jesus’ delay is that Lazarus had to die for the miracle to take place, but that seems unlikely  – Jesus loves the family, and wouldn’t put them through theatricals causing unnecessary pain – there would be other opportuntities for performing miracles.

Instead, we look at the context. Jesus has been living about six miles north of Jericho, avoiding Judea, where He had been pursued and threatened with stoning on account of His teaching and miraculous healings. When the nessage about Lazarus arrives, He is torn between wishing to be alongside His friend and the risk of certain death if He goes back to Judea. In many ways, this is His crucial moment – Is He prepared to give up His life for a friend? He spends the two days prayerfully wrestling with His decision – a much greater decision than just about Lazarus, because to go back to Judea is to accept His destiny as the saviour of the world, not just of one man, and be the first step in the walk that will lead to His Cross.

He chooses, and turns His face to Jerusalem.

 ⁷ He said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” ⁸ The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?” ⁹ Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. ¹⁰ But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” 

The disciples don’t want Jesus to go at all.  There is too much risk involved, with the authorites already stirring up the crowd out of fear they will listen to the message Jesus is preaching. But He refuses to go into hiding or disguise His ministry.

¹¹ After saying these things, he said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.” ¹² The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.” ¹³ Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep. ¹⁴ Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, ¹⁵ and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” 

They look for excuses for Jesus not to go. ‘Perhaps it isn’t that serious’. It is, though. The delay is important, because Jesus will use the resultant healing to confim His power even over death.

¹⁶ So Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

Thomas is (reluctantly) resigned to his fate out of loyalty to Jesus – but I suspect he is muttering under his breath.

¹⁷ Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. ¹⁸ Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles^[c] off, ¹⁹ and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. 

Sounds like an Irish funeral! The whole community gathers around to sympathise.

²⁰ So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. ²¹ Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 

An interesting conversation ensues. She rebukes Him, demonstrating the close relationship between Jesus and the family – she wouldn’t dare to give a Rabbi a telling-off otherwise

²² But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.”

So fix it, please.

 ²³ Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” ²⁴ Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 

I’ve heard platitudes like that many times. I want something more concrete than pie-in-the- sky-when-you-die.

 ²⁵ Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.^[d] Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, ²⁶ and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” ²⁷ She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”

And Martha – the practical one – confesses her faith – before Lazarus is raised from death. Here is a forunner of Thomas upper-room confession when Jesus appeared with the wounds in His hands and side ‘Do you believe because you have seen  – blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.’

²⁸ When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” ²⁹ And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. ³⁰ Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. ³¹ When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. ³² Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” ³³ When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved^[e] in his spirit and greatly troubled. ³⁴ And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” ³⁵ Jesus wept. 

Jesus – Son of God, but also human – understands and shares the pain of all those who have lost loved ones. His tears are not just for Lazarus, but the rest of the world.

³⁶ So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” ³⁷ But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?”

They ‘ve seen a miracle – but they want more. They don’t want to believe – they want an excuse not to.

³⁸ Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. ³⁹ Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odour, for he has been dead four days.” ⁴⁰ Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” ⁴¹ So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. ⁴² I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” ⁴³ When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” 

 “Lazarus, come out.” He calls Lazarus by name. Even death cannot triumph, and so it is with sin. There is no depth or distance to which human being can go that can prevent them from hearing that call. It is up to them to choose to accept or deny it.

⁴⁴ The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

Unbound, and set free.

He calls us, too. Our choice.

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Mothering Sunday 2026

Collect

Luke 2:25 – 35

…the consolation of Israel…

There are several annoying pieces of advice that have been around for centuries when people are looking for help and reassurance. ‘It’s always darkest just before dawn’ ‘it is what it is’. The technological version of helpful (not) suggestions is ‘Try switching it off and on again’.

Having said which, sometimes a complete reset is indeed the only option.

Since the beginning of time, God has given Israel plenty of opportunity to turn away from sin and obey His Commandments. They don’t; they follow their own way. And every time, disaster follows.

An impatient god would get sick of being ignored and leave humanity to it. The true God who created us isn’t about to do that – He loves His creation too much. He resorts to the only option that can work – the total reset that allows the world to start again. He sends His only Son to be the ‘consolation’ of Israel.

“Consolation” in this context refers to comfort or solace, pointing to the long-awaited hope of deliverance and restoration, rooted in the promises of the Hebrew Scriptures. This hope identified a person (the Messiah) who would bring redemption to Israel and, ultimately, to the world.

Isaiah spoke about it and prophesied.

40:1 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her
that her hard service has been completed,
that her sin has been paid for,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
double for all her sins.

Unfortunately, no-one listened. They refused to believe, relying on strict (and impossible) adherence to the Law for their salvation. Prophets came and went with the same outcome, but you have to wonder whether the Jewish authorities actually wanted a Messiah at all. They worried about the risk of not being able to use the Law as leverage to exert their power as judge and jury over the people.

They denied the voice of the Holy Spirit by failing to trust those prophesies; but ordinary people like Anna and Simeon heard and believed.

Simeon, though, didn’t just hear about the Messiah being incarnate in the child – he also knew that the child’s destiny would involve pain and suffering in order to fulfil His mission. And Mary knew too. The consolation of Israel – of the world – would cost her the life of her child. And that gives additional meaning to the song in Luke’s Gospel we know as the Magnificat and Mary’s acceptance of her role. ‘Let it be to me according to Thy Word’

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Lent 3 2026

Collect

Merciful Lord, Grant your people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh and the devil and with pure hearts and minds to follow you, the only God; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing that you have made and forgive the sins of all those who are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may receive from you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

John 4: 5-30

⁵So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.

7 A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink’. ⁸(His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) ⁹The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?’ (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.)^* 10Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me a drink”, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.’ ¹¹The woman said to him, ‘Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? ¹²Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?’ ¹³Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.’ ¹⁵The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.’

16 Jesus said to her, ‘Go, call your husband, and come back.’ ¹⁷The woman answered him, ‘I have no husband.’ Jesus said to her, ‘You are right in saying, “I have no husband”; ¹⁸for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!’ ¹⁹The woman said to him, ‘Sir, I see that you are a prophet. ²⁰Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you^* say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.’ ²¹Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²²You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. ²⁴God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.’ ²⁵The woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming’ (who is called Christ). ‘When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.’ ²⁶Jesus said to her, ‘I am he,^* the one who is speaking to you.’ the one who is speaking to you.’

27 Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said,  ‘Why are you speaking with her?’ ²⁸Then the woman left her water-jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, ²⁹‘Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?’ ³⁰They left the city and were on their way to him.

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