by Geoff Coles, vicar of St Mary's Church, Riddlesden

Easter! :- a chance for a break, a spot of gardening or D.I.Y.? Let's hope the weather keeps fine!

To some folk that sums it up, and the significance of the holy-day, as distinct from the holiday, is lost.

Christians believe, however, that Easter has life or death implications.

Most people try to avoid the subject of death, their own or that of a loved one, but it is the common inescapable fact of life.

Suddenly we are confronted with a funeral and grapple with the sobering question, "I wonder if Uncle Fred will be alright?"

So often our attempts to answer it are awash with sentimentality and a fervent desire for God to be so loving and forgiving that, when it comes to the crunch, anything goes!

But God is a God of justice as well as of mercy, and the wages of sin have already been fixed as Death!

The Bible tells us that God gave his only son, Jesus, to suffer and die to pay that price for our sins but we have to make a conscious decision to repent, acknowledge and accept the gift.

I have twice undergone open heart surgery and I can tell you that it certainly focuses the mind on life and death!

I came to believe that, as a Christian, I couldn't lose either way: whether I lived or died.

Through the bitter-sweet events of Good Friday and Easter Day, Jesus opened up the way back to God for sinful Man and Woman.

Through him we have the gift of eternal life. Good news for everyone, and that includes Uncle Fred and Auntie Freda, too!

"God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.