What if—
What if is a question that usually pops up at some time in our lives. What if I had taken that job? What if I’d married that woman and not missed my chance? What if I had spoken up at that meeting and not kept quiet? Or if you are a bit of a history buff like me you may ask what if that battle had gone a different way? Some historians say that had the Prussian army not arrived at Waterloo when they did, Wellington and the British may have lost. Just think, us Brits could have been eating croissants 200 years earlier than we did! Usually this question is uttered with a sense of longing or regret. There was a new world or a new reality waiting for us. If we had only turned the right corner everything could have been so different, but now it’s too late.
We are drawing near to the season of Easter. That time when churches the world over reflect on the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The solemnity of Good Friday followed by the joy and glory of Easter Sunday. As I reflect on the Easter story I think about a man who asked the question what if?. He didn’t have much time to be honest. He had spent his life as a thief and now he was hanging on a cross enduring a horrific ending. Hanging next to him was Jesus. Despite all the odds the thief turned to him and asked, “Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom”. What an utterly outrageous question. A common thief asking the Son of God to join him in his kingdom. Yet despite this and his own agony Jesus turned to him and said, “Today you will be with me in Paradise”. A thief with absolutely nothing to offer dared to turn to the Son of God and ask the question, “what if?
The Easter story proclaims the message that there is another reality. There is another future for those who want it. To the answer what if Jesus says “well come and see”. Through his death on the cross and his resurrection Jesus offers us forgiveness and new life. Why not join us at Thaxted Baptist Church on this Easter weekend and discover this new life for yourself. Keep a watch out for details of our services.