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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