All Saints Church Childwall

‘Joseph (of Arimathea) took Jesus’ body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, andlaid it in his own new tomb’ (Matthew 27 v 59-60)

In his book, ‘The Miracle on the River Kwai’, Ernest Gordon tells the following true story of a group of POW’s working on the Burma railway during World War II. At the end of each day the tools were collected from the prisoners and marked against a register. On one occasion a shovel went missing. The Japanese guard demanded to know who had taken it. When no one came forward the guard flew into a rage and began to rail furiously against the POW’s about what he would do to them unless the guilty man owned up. Still no one came forward.
So the guard lined up the work party in question, cocked and aimed his rifle at the men and shrieked, ‘All die! All die!’ But before he could shoot the first man, a Scots Guardsman stepped forward. The frenzied guard clubbed him to death there and then whilst the other men stood silently to attention. No other prisoner was hurt. At this point the tools were recounted. This time the register tallied. It transpired that no shovel had ever been missing: the tools had simply been miscounted. The man who had been killed so cruelly was clearly innocent. Yet that day he made a selfless sacrifice, voluntarily giving himself to death so that others would not have to die.

At Easter we remember fundamentally that Jesus Christ gave up Himself to die in the place of others, the innocent willingly taking the place of the guilty. The motive for this self-sacrifice is God’s forgiving and redeeming love; the effect is that all who turn in repentant faith to Jesus will have their sins forgiven and will know life eternal. His sacrifice saves all who believe in Him, turning the guilty into the innocent before the judgement throne of God. What helps me to appreciate this great Scriptural truth – central to the new covenant promise of God in Jesus – is that Jesus was literally laid in another man’s tomb. The tomb in which Christ’s body lay for three days was plainly reserved for another. By rising from that tomb in a mighty act of resurrection, Jesus demonstrated irrevocably that death could not hold Him, or any whose place He takes
through faith.

God’s great Easter message is that Jesus died in your place, taking your sin into His body, and rose again in resurrection, thereby holding out the hope of resurrection for you, too. God’s promise and pledge of new life in Jesus is for all who turn to Him in faith, including you. Why not join us over Easter, or join our next Alpha Course, to discover more about Jesus’ death and resurrection and how they can change your life – forever.

With Easter joy and with my prayers, Reverend Gary Renison Vicar: The Rev’d Gary Renison, The Vicarage, Childwall Abbey Road. Tel: 737 2169