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Dear friends,

Lara Bingle has been back in the news lately over another controversy. Remember the first time – the “where the bloody hell are you” commercials? Not that they were her fault, but they did highlight the odd things that people will focus on. Australian Tourism ran the ads in Britain and Canada trying to woo winter-weary northerners to our sunny playground down under. The Brits took offence at the word ‘bloody’ and censored the TV ad. The Canadians took offence at the word ‘hell’ and censored the ad. But fair crack of the whip! It’s not as if Australians invented these terms, for Christians have been using them for centuries – and with a fuller meaning.

Take for instance the word ‘bloody’. Why does Easter need to be so ‘bloody’?

Easter is all about blood – the blood of Jesus shed for me – his life spent for mine. When God’s laws are broken it’s a capital offence. Listen to the message of the scriptures:

1.  “The wages of sin is death”, says Paul in Romans. It’s what we earn.
2.  The first sin (Adam and Eve eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil) demanded the judgment from God, “the day you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17).
3. The sacrificial system – human sin demanded the blood of an animal to atone for it, that is, to divert the wrath of God away from the sinner.
4.  Forgiveness comes at a high price. “In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” (Hebrews 9:22)
5.  Now we know that only the blood of Christ (the God/man) is sufficient and effective to atone for human sin – a central message of Easter.

So ‘bloody’ is an entirely appropriate word at Easter.

And so is the word ‘hell’. Traditionally it evokes pictures of fire, heat, a red devil with trident and an arrow tipped tail – all caricatures that can numb the senses by making hell look ridiculous. The Bible (and Jesus) described hell in different ways, e.g. lake of fire, gnashing of teeth, but also where God turns His back on sinners – He removes His good presence. Hell is not so much a place, as it is a position – like two people standing back to back, facing away from each other – estrangement, distance. If we are estranged from the Author of life, then that’s hell.

In the creed we say, “He descended into hell,” not meaning Jesus went down under the earth’s crust to an underground lake of fire, but rather he descended to the lowest form of human existence. The Son of God (representing man made in the image of God) was cast out of the loving presence of God and cried “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” That was hell for him. Jesus went to hell on the cross, shut out from the presence of his eternally loving Father. And he experienced hell so you and I wouldn’t have to.

If the disciples Peter and John had been Australians and entered the empty tomb, they may well have said something like “where the bloody hell is Jesus?”, and they would have been right.

In fellowship,
Peter Frith

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