Reflect on the following:

If I type "Easter" into my phone the emoji of a cute baby chick in an eggshell comes up. At the shops there are pictures of soft fluffy bunnies and mountains of sweet chocolate eggs. Easter ads show cherub-like laughing children running through green gardens, and generations of family members gathering happily around delicious feasts.

The sharp end of Easter looks very different to this. Jesus Christ nailed to a wooden cross is a horrific image. It's understandable we'd rather put it out of our mind and think of bunny rabbits. But with the horror of Jesus' crucifixion there is also something wonderful. Something worth celebrating all over the world year after year for thousands of years. Something worth closing the shops, taking time off work and spending time with loved ones feasting and rejoicing over.

The pointy end of Easter is that Jesus died for you, for me, for all of us. As it says in the Bible in the book of Romans

"God gave Jesus to die for our sins, and he raised him to life, so that we would be made acceptable to God." Romans 4:25 CEV.

Now here we have something else difficult to look at - we are sinners and as sinners we are not acceptable to God without forgiveness. It's a hard truth, possibly the hardest truth to face. But if we are brave enough to reflect honestly on ourselves, we know we have hurt others, we have hurt ourselves, we have rejected God - and that is what sin is.

So we come to the horrible-wonderful paradox of the sharp end of Easter - we are sinners but we are loved by God; in our sin we are unacceptable to God but in Jesus' crucifixion we are made acceptable; Jesus was condemned, forsaken and crucified and Jesus was resurrected to eternal glory.

Are you willing to contemplate the horrible- wonderful sharp end of Easter this year?

Prayer: Dear God, please open my eyes to the truth about Easter, the truth about my sin and the truth about Jesus' death and resurrection. May I trust Jesus' death to make me acceptable to you. Amen.