Easter at St Nicholas Church

There are lots of crosses about at Easter.

At St.Nicholas we give out palm crosses on Palm Sunday. This is the day on which the crowds welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem with shouts on "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord" the traditional greeting used at the coronation of a king. Later in the week Good Friday we eat Hot Cross buns reminding us that just six days later the same crowds demanded that Christ was crucified.

 I wonder what a cross means to you. Maybe a cross reminds you of the mistakes you made at school. I still can visualise all those red crosses down the page of my maths book!

Maybe a cross brings to mind the first time you could vote in an election when you put a cross beside the name of the person you wanted to represent you in parliament or on the council.

Or perhaps a cross represents a kiss on a card sent by someone who love you.

At Easter a cross means all those things. You see Christians believe that we have all made mistakes but if you ask Christ to represent you, he will, by the power of his love wipe out all our mistakes so that we can start again with God, with our neighbours and with ourselves.

The extent of Christ's love for us was seen on Good Friday when he allowed himself to be killed and taking on the sins of the whole world. Christians believe that in doing so Christ freed the whole world to become one with God once more.

This year, on Easter Day as part of the communion service a child will ask "Why do we follow Jesus?" to which the reply will come "Because he is God's saving love" and in a sense those words contain all there is to say about the cross. It represents God's saving love shown to the world at Eatser by Christ's death and ressurrection.

The Rev’d Sue Greatorex, and the Congregation of St Nicholas Church would like to wish everyone a very Happy Easter.