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+---
+title: Why Easter is the best week of the year
+description: >-
+    Based on a talk given to my colleagues at
+    <a href="https://www.scottlogic.co.uk">Scott Logic</a> for Maundy
+    Thursday, 2024.
+pubDate:
+    year: 2024
+    month: 03
+    day: 30
+---
+
+As you might have noticed, it is Easter this week! So I'd like to take five or
+five minutes of your time to share why I – and about two billion other humans
+going about the place just now – think Easter is the best week of the year. And
+it's got something to do with a special Christian ritual called Communion.
+
+Communion, at its heart, is about as simple a ritual as you can get. You get
+together with a bunch of other people. You share some bread, and you share some
+wine.
+
+And it’s because of this ritual that so many people regard Easter as the best
+week of the year. I want to explain to you why that is, and more than that, I
+want to convince you that Easter is the best week of the year for you, too!
+
+If you’ve passed by _The Hub_ at the top of Johnstone Terrace here in
+Edinburgh recently, you might have notice the banner which is draped over
+the railings just now – reading, ‘RITUALS THAT UNITE US.’
+
+Now, that might seem like an odd idea. But wouldn’t that be great, if we
+actually had a ritual which could unite us? Because the world could surely do
+with a bit more unity right now. The world seems so divided, and sometimes it
+seems like there’s no hope for real unity.
+
+We can see that in our politics. We’re divided about foreign policy, about
+taxation policy, about trade policy, about environmental policy.
+
+And the conflicts that we have in this country seem pretty trivial when we
+remember the conflicts that are playing out in other parts of the world right
+now. In Israel and Gaza. In Sudan. In Russia and Ukraine.
+
+And there’s plenty of conflict happening on the small scale, too. Often it’s the
+smallest-scale conflicts which hurt us the most deeply. Your landlord pushes you
+around. That friend you trusted like no-one else in the world lets you down. The
+partner or spouse you loved like no-one else in the world – you end up fighting.
+
+It’s possible that you’re going to be reading this right now with a heavy heart
+because of a broken relationship in their life. And doesn’t that hurt more than
+anything else we know?
+
+When the world is groaning so heavily under the weight of conflict, and some
+banner on _The Hub_ tells us a ritual can unite us, that seems so out of
+proportion to the scale of the problem, doesn’t it? What can a ritual do? A bit
+of old superstition? An excuse to divide people, maybe – what can a ritual do
+to unite us?
+
+Well, two thousand years ago, a man had a meal with his friends. Together, they
+shared a meal of bread and wine – which, in that time and place, was the most
+ordinary meal imaginable.
+
+And yet, in that most ordinary event imaginable, something was happening which
+was totally unimaginable. As this man, Jesus, shared the elements of this meal,
+he made some extraordinary statements about what he was doing: ‘take, eat, this
+is my body’ – ‘drink this, all of you; this is my blood of the new covenant.’
+(The word ‘covenant’ means a promise.)
+
+He told them he wasn’t just giving them bread and wine, he was giving his body
+and his blood, and a promise.
+
+Before Jesus ate another meal, he was flogged and nailed to a cross. His blood
+was spilt and his body broken, even to death.
+
+And yet, that wasn’t the end of the Easter story. Because three days later,
+mourners turned up at Jesus’ tomb to pay their respects, and found the tomb
+empty, the stone rolled away. Then they became the first of crowds of
+incredulous eyewitnesses to see Jesus, the same Jesus who was killed on a cross,
+alive.
+
+Some magic trick, right? But this matters a hell of a lot more than just some
+magic trick. Because Jesus became the first person in history to prove that you
+really can both have your cake and eat it. He gave his life, and lived! As a
+result, we can have his life and our own. We can join with Jesus through the
+ritual of Communion which he established, and thereby, through Jesus’ body, join
+together with everyone else who takes part in that ritual, as one body. Then we
+can start living our brand-new, full-fat, original-recipe life overflowing with
+generosity where we too can both give our life to others and enjoy it ourselves.
+Indeed, Jesus taught us and showed us that it’s precisely by giving our lives to
+others that we get to truly live ourselves.
+
+This is why, in spite of all the division which persists in the world today, two
+billion people regard this week as the best week of the year. Two billion
+people, from every nation on Earth, speaking thousands of languages, of every
+age and culture and gender and race, who defy the divisions of this world to
+insist on joining together as one body in Jesus.
+
+Because Jesus’ new covenant, his promise to all of us, is that in an apparently
+hopelessly divided world, there exists real hope for unity. And that’s why
+Easter is the best week of the year.