Radio
Leicester Thought for the Day
© John Denney 21 April 2000 – Good Friday
Back in the
dawn of history, when I was but a lad in short trousers, grey
flannel shirt and chapped knees, I remember a playground chant we
used to use:
One a penny, two a penny, Hot cross Buns;
One a penny, two a penny, Hot cross Buns;
Give them to your daughters, give them to your
sons,
One a penny, two a penny, Hot cross Buns.
Do children
still chant that these days, I wonder, when they’re bouncing
a pair of tennis balls against a wall, or skipping? Perhaps
it would need updating a bit, what with prices being the way they
are. Twenty-five pee a bun seems to be the going rate these
days. That’s five shillings, as used to was!
And of course,
Hot Cross Buns were reserved exclusively for Easter. You
couldn’t find one in the shops before Good Friday. But
my local supermarket has been selling them since January,
alongside Easter eggs, some of which hit the shops immediately
after Christmas. If I ruled the world, I’d make a law
reserving the sale of everything to its due season. No
fireworks until a week before bonfire night, no Christmas goodies
until the beginning of December, no Easter eggs until a fortnight
before Easter Sunday, no Hot Cross buns till Good Friday itself.
I guess we all
live in a “wish and get” culture nowadays. If we
want something, we want it now. Buy now and pay
later. We can’t be bothered to wait. We live
life in a rush. We demand instant communication, through
our mobile phones and our e-mails. And these things are
wonderful, but we let them run our lives a bit too much.
Today, Good
Friday, is the most solemn day in the Christian year. It’s
the day when Christians remember the cruel execution of Jesus
outside the walls of Jerusalem around AD 33. Christians,
though, call this day “Good” Friday. How can the
judicial murder of Jesus, God in human form, be considered
“Good”?
Because the
death of Jesus, in ways no one fully understands, is the price
that Jesus paid for our forgiveness. This wasn’t a
cheap “buy now pay later” transaction. It was a
“Come on in to the Kingdom of God; I’ve paid for
you” transaction. It was the greatest deal ever
struck.
There was no other good enough
To pay the price of sin;
He only could unlock the gate
Of heaven, and let us in.
I’m off to
eat a Hot Cross Bun for breakfast now, and I’ll be looking
at the cross marked on it, and remembering…