An Easter message of hope from Canon JOHN YOUNG...

FOR the last three weeks the world has held its breath. We have endured a lengthy Good Friday experience - nearly 30 days of fighting in Iraq. When Jesus died his cruel death on the cross, he was innocent and he was young.

We have watched our TV screens and seen young innocent people in deep anguish. Children with charred faces and severed limbs. Coffins unloaded from planes, draped in the Union Flag (30 dead British servicemen in Iraq). Mothers in tears, just as Mary wept at the suffering of her Son.

I venture these words as an exercise in sombre description, not harsh judgement.

Readers will have their own views on whether the war was justified.

But it is beyond question that one huge negative effect has been the removal of the spotlight from other tortured parts of the globe.

Robert Mugabe has had a field day in Zimbabwe. The carnage in Congo continues - four million dead in the war there.

There will be less cash for reconstruction in these, and other, places because of the massive resources needed in Iraq.

In response, supporters of the war will rightly point out that tens of thousands of Iraqis would have been tortured and killed had Saddam stayed in power. Some good will come from the barrel of those guns.

Yes, the modern world has had a lot of practice in the Good Friday experience. This is why the original day in Jerusalem has so much to say to us all today.

In some ways our world has changed out of all recognition during the last 2,000 years. Computers and supersonic travel put that beyond dispute. But, in other ways, the world hasn't changed at all since Jesus' time.

The Bible is about people who loved and people who bore grudges; people who cheated and people who sacrificed themselves for others; those who worried about the cost of living and fell in love; others who wept in despair and laughed with irrepressible happiness. In other words, the Bible is about people just like you and me.

It describes, comments and analyses with great insight and healing power.

It sheds searching light upon the human condition. It shows us how to relate to one another. It provides inspiration. It offers guidance when we face decisions.

The world has never needed its eternal truths more urgently.

The great message of the Bible comes to a climax in Jesus. He drew crowds, cared for the marginalised, made friends with prostitutes and crooks, and called ordinary people like you and me to be his followers.

But the jealousy which spoils our lives if we allow it to do so, turned its venom on him.

- Good Friday reveals the depths of human wickedness. It was human pride which opposed Jesus; it was human greed which betrayed Jesus; it was human sin which convicted Jesus. When He died, the land was covered in daytime darkness. It was as though heaven itself was saying: this is the most dreadful day of all.

- Good Friday also reveals the depth of God's love. Rather than using his power to dominate, Jesus chose to submit to the worst people could do. So the power of God is seen in symbols of weakness - in a manger and on a cross.

Here is power kept in check; power handed over; power utterly controlled by love. One of the most famous of Bible quotations begins, "God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son..."

Famously, Good Friday was not the end of the story. The day of death gave way to the day of life. Darkness yielded to light. The crucified Son rises as the risen Lord.

Is this just a nice story to tell the children? Or does it still have power in the adult world, with its violence, wars - and acts of love?

It is my conviction that in this great story lies our only long-term hope. The Easter story is not the product of wishful thinking; it carries the most important single truth ever declared or believed.

John Polkinghorne was Professor of Mathematical Physics at Cambridge. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society - a top scientist, recently knighted for his service to science and the nation. He has just written a booklet called The Archbishop Of York's School Of Christianity And Science.

This is what he says about the resurrection of Jesus:

"Jesus died a miserable death, painful and shameful and deserted by His followers. It looks like a total failure. Yet the fact is that the story of Jesus continued beyond that awful death and I believe this is because He was indeed raised from the dead on the first Easter Day.

"That belief makes sense because it involves a three-fold vindication.

"Firstly, it vindicates Jesus. It was not fitting that His wonderful life should end in failure.

"Secondly, it vindicates God. Did God abandon the one man who wholly committed himself to obedience to the divine will? Easter shows us that God did not.

"Thirdly, it vindicates a deep-seated human intuition that the last word about life does not lie with death. Christians believe Jesus' resurrection within history is the foretaste and guarantee of what awaits all of us beyond history."

Easter brings hope to our troubled and divided world. It tells us the truth. Love is stronger than hatred. Life is stronger than death. Heaven will be a glorious reality. It is for this reason millions around the world will gather on Easter Sunday. Join us as we declare:

Alleluia! Christ is risen.

He is risen indeed - Alleluia!

- John Young is a Canon of York Minster. He has written a dozen books and addresses the issues raised in this article in Teach Yourself Christianity (Hodder Paperback). A revised, updated edition has just been published.

- Prof John Polkinghorne will be speaking at St Chad's Church (near Terry's) in York at 7.45pm on Friday June 6. All welcome, admission free

Updated: 11:43 Friday, April 18, 2003