BBC4 Thought for the Day

The Rt Rev. James Jones

As a Radio addict I confess I sometimes dream up my own programme ideas! One of them's called 'Margins of Error'. Each programme focuses on a different person of influence by searching their bookshelves for books they've read decades ago. Of special interest would be comments they've written in the margins, and to explore how and why their views have changed or even remained the same.
I know some people see marking books as a sacrilege but my shelves are full of them including a number of Bibles. I see that one of them has a sentence underlined from the reading set for today - Maundy Thursday. It's the story of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples. It'll be read today in Manchester Cathedral when the Queen comes to give her Maundy money.
The words I'd underlined, but without comment, were 'He loved them to the end'. I can't remember what moved me to mark the page but I find these words always apply a brake to my speed when reading them aloud, Jesus 'having loved his own who were in the world, loved them to the end.'
This is the amazing grace that even though we should betray and brutally manhandle God's Son he carries on loving us to the end - this is the mocking of God who retaliates only with love.
Like many Bishops I'm frequently asked to speak out against blasphemy and condemn outrageous portrayals of Jesus in the media. More often than not the point's made that programme-makers would never dare do this to the prophet Mohammed, so why should they do it to Christ. Some go on to say that the fact that shows like Jerry Springer the Opera are staged and televised is because Christianity has lost its power and is no longer a force to be reckoned with in our society.
Part of my reply is that I've no desire to give free publicity, but there is a deeper reason which I've discussed with my Muslim friends. In Islam the mocking of God is an intolerable offence. That's why crowds fill the streets to demonstrate against every humiliation of their faith. Indeed, one of the reasons that Muslims cannot accept the divinity of Jesus is that they cannot believe that God would have allowed his Son to suffer.
But for Christians the abusing of God goes to the heart of our belief. Christ crucified is where our faith begins. When people despise and reject him they're only doing what they did in the beginning. One of the reasons most Christians don't take to the streets is not because we no longer care, but because the humiliation of God is what we embrace every time we take communion. This is the token of a body broken, of blood spilt and of the mocking of God. What sustains us - is that even though people should despise him and drive nails through his hands 'he loves us to the end'.