The cross is key to everything. An instrument of torture and death, it is also a symbol of God’s love and peace. On the cross Jesus died to deal with our sin and defeat the powers of death and evil. He identified with our sufferings and set us an example of self-sacrificial love. The idea of substitution lies at the heart of understanding what Jesus did on the cross: ‘For the essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting Himself for man. Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be; God sacrifices Himself for man and puts Himself where only man deserves to be.’ (John Stott)

Our featured artwork is a drawing by the Dutch artist Maurits Cornelis Escher, renowned for his mathematically inspired woodcut prints and drawings. In this piece, two birds are intertwined, their forms drawn with a sense of infinity, symmetry, and continuity.

These qualities mirror the essence of a loving relationship, making it a fitting image for Valentine’s Day.

Palm Sunday

Now to the gate of my Jerusalem, the seething holy city of my heart, the saviour comes. But will I welcome him?

Oh crowds of easy feelings make a start; they raise their hands, get caught up in the singing, and think the battle won.

Too soon they’ll find the challenge, the reversal he is bringing changes their tune.

I know what lies behind the surface flourish that so quickly fades; self-interest, and fearful guardedness, the hardness of the heart, its barricades, and at the core, the dreadful emptiness of a perverted temple.

Jesus come break my resistance and make me your home.

by Malcolm Guite. Poet in residence - Church Times

pollybrown@mottramparish.org.uk

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