A Powerful Easter – ‘Live’ for the first time in two years

From Maundy Thursday to Easter morning we journeyed from foot-washing through the Ugly Cross, to the Empty Cross and on to the Transforming Cross.

Maundy Thursday saw us considering three simple household objects: a jug of water, a bowl and a towel, which helped turn culture and tradition on its head. We also looked at two things Jesus had left behind for us to remember Him by: washing feet and communion.

The Ugly Cross was really the ugliness of what happened to Jesus on the first Good Friday. From the humiliation He faced at the hands of the religious leaders and Romans, to the culmination in the ugliness of His death at calvary.

The end of Good Friday and Easter Eve helped us to start looking at the Empty Cross and consider the grief the first Disciples faced thinking that their hopes for the future were now in tatters. It helps us today, to remember that the cross is empty.

Then comes Easter Sunday and the Transforming Cross, preceded by the cry “Christ is risen: He is risen indeed. Hallelujah!”. This year we literally transformed an ugly cross in church. At the start of the service the ugly, but empty, cross stood on the stage. During the prayers, it was carried to the back where, after communion, we were all encouraged to take a daffodil and transform it into something beautiful.

This was a dramatic way of looking at the transformed cross and to help us think about it as the Transforming Cross because of the death and resurrection of Christ.

This was the first time in two years that Holy Trinity has been able to enjoy the Easter weekend in person and it truly was, as one member of the congregation put it, a ‘powerful and fulfilling weekend’.

by Ian Farrimond