Services (Maundy Thursday)

If only you, God, would slay the wicked!

Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!

They speak of you with evil intent;

Your adversaries misuse your name.

Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord,

And abhor those who are in rebellion against you?

I have nothing but hatred for them;

I count them my enemies.

Jesus taught us to love our enemies, but there is nothing Christian in the belief that evil should not be resisted. As the Psalmist makes clear, God hates injustice and weeps at the cruelty that human beings do to each other.

It is easy to look at the events in Ukraine and despair that such things could happen in our supposedly civilised continent in the 21st century. It was despair that Jesus’ followers felt, some 2,000 years ago, when they gathered below the cross on which he was crucified, and met then at his tomb. The one who had promised that he was the Messiah had just suffered the most agonising and humiliating death, and had left them without hope.

But the Easter story doesn’t end on Good Friday. It is fulfilled on Easter Sunday, when those same despairing followers rejoiced at the miracle they saw before them – the risen Christ resurrected, his sacrifice for the sins of the world now complete, and with his Kingdom at hand. Those same broken men and women would be transformed into the foundation of the most powerful belief system that the world has ever known.

However bleak our world might be, there is always hope for those who believe the message of the resurrection. Whether this weekend in our western tradition, or the following one in that of the Orthodox churches, may I wish a happy, and peaceful, Easter to all.

- Murdo Fraser