I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 20th of March, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in the Gospel of Matthew 27:54:

“Truly this was the Son of God!” 

Then if you go to Mark 15:39, the very same comment:

“Truly this Man was the Son of God!”

It took gentiles, unbelievers, to acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. You see when they saw what was happening, the earthquakes; the rocks splitting; the graves opening; the saints walking around; a terrible reverence came over them. What saddens me so much at this Easter season, is that there are some churches that do not even celebrate Good Friday. Oh, they celebrate Easter Sunday, The Resurrection, and so do I by the way, but there is a lack of reverence shown for the incredible price that our Lord Jesus Christ paid for our debt and our sin. There is a lack of respect and reverence shown. No crucifixion, no resurrection! I remember Michael Cassidy saying that once and I have never forgotten it. Without the crucifixion there can be no resurrection. 

Jill and I as new believers, we would come home from church on Good Friday and quietly sit in the garden, maybe with a cup of tea, and just humbly reflect on the gigantic price that Jesus paid for our sinful lives. There is much more reverence required in the church today. I am even talking about dress code. When you go to a special meeting, you get dressed up, don’t you? - A wedding or maybe a funeral, but what about coming to church?

I always remember one particular Good Friday, we decided at Shalom, to show the movie, The Passion of the Christ. Yes, it is very graphic and maybe for younger children it is not even appropriate, but I want to tell you, I watched that movie and when the movie was finished and the people quietly started leaving our church, I was riveted to my chair. I could not get out of my chair. I was the only one left in the church and I wept and I wept.

I went to Israel with my wife, Jill. We went to the Old City and I went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. As I walked in through those big doors, there are massive doors, there is a little bench inside and on the right-hand side are steps up to where they say was Golgotha. There are two places in Israel, the other one is the garden tomb, which is very special as well, but that particular time, I sat down on that bench and I just broke down. I started to weep uncontrollably. My dear wife had to try and comfort me when I realised what our beloved Master had done for us. This Easter time, please, spend time in the presence of God. 

Jesus bless you and goodbye.