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Editorial
Good Friday And Easter
In his book, A Whisper of God, Bishop Richard Clarke writes: "Christ’s teaching is undoubtedly a call to sacrificial love. But it is more than this. Christ also calls his followers into a relationship with God which involves specific beliefs; the call to righteousness is far more a call to be in a relationship with God, than the demand to do certain right things." Bishop Clarke goes on to point out that good behaviour is not the preserve of Christians and that it would be patronising to take such a view.
It follows from such insights that what is especially distinctive about the Christian life is not only its beliefs but also the fact that Christian faith involves a dynamic relationship with the living God. It is this living God who reveals himself in an absolutely unique way in the events of Good Friday and Easter. Although very different in mood and tone, Christian devotions on these two sacred days are deeply interrelated. On Good Friday, the faithfulness of the earthly Jesus leads to its ultimate conclusion: the cruelty and suffering on Golgotha. Similarly, at Easter, the divinity of Jesus leads to its ultimate conclusion: his glorious resurrection from the dead.
Sacrifice and victory are twin themes here, but Christians are called to much more than the simple remembering of these events. We are called to enter into a relationship with this Jesus, a relationship that transforms our lives and brings us both the courage to make our sacrifices and the joy of a life lived in the companionship of the ever-loving God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Herein lies healing, herein lies salvation. Jesus, the Saviour of the World, opens to us not only a window on to God but also the way to fullness of life, to life in communion with God who made us and who sustains us by his boundless grace.
So, as Bishop Clarke emphasises so aptly, the Christian life truly is a life of relationship - a relationship with the God who, in Jesus, took our nature upon him, living, dying and rising again for each and every person. Gospel this is, indeed, good news beyond compare.