Good Friday...

‘a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief’ Isaiah 53:3

News flooding in from so many places –whole city scapes reduced to rubble in Ukraine their inhabitants starving, dying or fleeing; green hillside villages burnt to ashes and abandoned in DR Congo as rebel atrocities spiral out of control; an unapparelled food crisis looming in sub Saharan Africa resulting from drought and displacement; almost 90 million refugees worldwide – a world full of sorrow and acquainted with grief.

In Jesus’s agony in the garden He prayed for his disciples and for all of us who ‘will believe’ right down through history, knowing that there would be much evil and suffering ahead. In Jesus agony on the cross he remembered his mother and provided for her care, he looked to his neighbour on another cross and spoke words of eternal hope, and despite horrendous pain and separation he was obedient to the end.

Earlier, during Jesus’s trial, Pilate questions him:

‘You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.’ ‘What is truth?’ retorted Pilate. John 18:37-39

It seems that Jesus remains silent…truth stands before corrupt worldly power.

A few hours earlier Jesus has spoken of his death and, as his disciples grew increasingly worried, he also sought to comfort them declaring

‘I am the way, the truth and the life’ John 14:6

As we engage with our neighbours and with the overwhelming troubles we see around, let us remember we are God’s precious children called and empowered to bring comfort where we can, to speak of Jesus who has walked this earth and shown us the way to declare truth, life and eternal hope even in the darkest times.