Good Friday is the Best of Days!

I went to the Good Friday service at St Helen's this morning. There was a short talk by Mark O'Donaghue who described Good Friday as the best of days. Of all the days marked in the Christian calendar today's is not one the world has sought to commercialise like Christmas or even Easter and yet for the Christian it is a day commemorating something amazing.... the day Jesus made 'the Great Exchange'. Jesus willingly took on himself the punishment due to me and in exchange I was given his sinless standing before God!

During the service we had a series of readings and hymns and a solo all of which were very moving.

In the eyes of the world the Cross represented the most ignominious of deaths and yet, as is always the case with the Gospel, appearances can be deceptive. As Jesus dies the curtain in the temple is torn in two - the barrier that ceremonially separated a holy God from a less than holy people is split apart. The centurion, a representative of all of us who are foreigners to the things of God, perceives something astonishing in this death "Surely this man was the Son of God!"

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ps

12th April 2009. Easter Sunday, the very best of days!

Check out the St Helen's Easter Films at www.st-helens.org.uk/easter/