Thought for the Week: Low Sunday.

I’m not too keen on eggs and the prospect of having to eat a runny boiled egg is too much for me!  Easter eggs are, of course, an entirely different matter and this and every year Easter eggs of every shape and size would have been readily consumed and enjoyed.  A little self-indulgence over a special weekend who would deny us that!    Eggs, of course, are a natural symbol of new life and a perfect example of packaging!   Who would have thought that under the plain exterior new life is being formed soon to shatter the shell and break out into the world.

Central to the message of Easter is the death of a young man on a cross.  Nothing unusual about that, Roman authority was not to be challenged and this cruel and shameful deterrent was a means of making that known.  From the cross Jesus cried in agony ‘It is finished’, sin and death yielding their strangle hold of power to his suffering love.  Redemption lavished upon an undeserving world as Jesus died that first Good Friday.

The cross, however, was not the end.  God raised Jesus from the dead and that’s why we celebrate with great rejoicing the Easter message of new life.  This coming Sunday is often called ‘’Low Sunday’ because it follows Easter Sunday when churches and chapels would have seen increased congregations and the excitement and joy of the resurrection resounds all over the world.  The truth is that every Sunday is special because the foundation of the Christian faith is that Jesus was raised from the dead and that his presence of peace, love and assurance of forgiveness is there for us all.  Easter, then is much more than chocolate eggs, cute bunnies and what’s on TV.  It’s God’s saving love revealed in the cross of His son and the third day when God raised his son from the dead.  No Sunday is ‘low’ the heights and immeasurable grace of God continues to be proclaimed this and every Sunday.   Death could not handle Him, the grave could not hold Him – He is risen, He is risen indeed!