Every month we submit an article to Great Shelford's monthly magazine. Here is our latest contribution for the April 2026 edition.

EASTER REFLECTIONS

This month we celebrate a pivotal moment in the Christian calendar: Easter Day, the day Jesus rose from the dead. Easter Day however cannot be a celebration unless we remember the events leading up to it, including Jesus’ death on Good Friday. As we remember those events, it gives us a glimpse of Jesus’ character, life and purpose.

For 3 years, Jesus had travelled around with his disciples preaching the good news of repentance and forgiveness. He healed the sick, made friends with despised tax collectors and prostitutes and fed thousands of people. He led a blameless life doing the will of his Father God but was then betrayed to the authorities by one who was closest to him.   While his disciples fled, Jesus was arrested, faced a sham trial, and was sentenced to death on a cross, yet even as he was dying, he forgave those who treated him so cruelly. His body was buried in a borrowed tomb but three days later God raised him from death, and he now reigns with him in Heaven.  

Through his suffering Jesus can identify with our lived experience, the burdens we bear for ourselves and for the suffering of the world: abandonment, betrayal and denial, humiliation and injustice, pain and anguish, fear and disappointments. He can help us to bear those burdens if we lean on him, because through his death and resurrection, Jesus has opened a way for us to be in relationship with Him.

 He says, “He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him”. (John 14 v 21)

Jesus has promised he will never leave us and has prepared a place for us in Heaven to be with him eternally. He offers us new transformed lives filled with hope and a peace that passes all understanding.

“Jesus is alive!” is an Easter declaration - a cause for celebration. As Christians we celebrate the wonder and joy of the resurrection every Sunday and we invite you to come to our services and hear for yourself through words of scripture and songs of praise how much Jesus loves you and longs for you to join his family.

Every blessing, Suzanne Watt, member of Great Shelford Free Church