By Revd. Richard Walker – Vicar of St. John’s Church, Yeadon

THIS year’s Easter celebrations take place in the middle of a most unusual and worrying time in our nation. We find ourselves confined to our homes - where possible, separated from friends and family, watching endless news reports of the latest death tolls from the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic. It’s tempting to forget Easter for this year and yet, if we will but listen, its message speaks even more powerfully at this time.

Firstly, it reminds us of the fragility of human life. All our hopes and opportunities can so quickly fall from our grasp. Christ was proclaimed as king on Palm Sunday and crucified as a blasphemer on Good Friday. We have enjoyed, as a country, years of relative health and prosperity and, in no time at all, we now face widespread fatalities and economic ruin. Suddenly, all that we have relied on in the past is crumbling beneath our feet.

Secondly, it proclaims in the starkest terms that God is with us in the midst of our human suffering. Christians believe that, in Jesus, God stepped into our world and, on the cross, he shared in our pain and brokenness. The cross declares that God is with us and that he cares for us, even now as we isolate ourselves and worry about what the future holds.

Thirdly, it provides eternal hope for all who believe it. The cross is God’s answer to the virus of sin that plagues the human race, for there its causes and consequences were put to death in Christ. The resurrection is God’s provision of free forgiveness, a new start, the power to live as we should and the experience of life that is abundant and everlasting. How we need, in these days, to discover such deeper realities to our daily lives.

So, during this time when we are forced to step back from normal life, as we have known it, may I encourage you to look again at the message of Easter?