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The Bible tells us that there is great angelic choir singing praises in heaven, & sometimes on earth. The sound and the harmony are obviously ‘out of this world’. One of our hymns begins ‘There is singing up in heaven such as we have never known’. But what do the angels sing? In his vision of the Lord God sitting on His throne (Isa.6.1-4), Isaiah said that the creatures round the throne were calling to each other : ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty, the whole earth is full of His glory!’ There could be special hymns for specific occasions. At the Incarnation, the shepherds on the hills above Bethlehem saw and heard the heavenly hosts singing ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven - Gloria in excelsis Deo - and peace on earth to those with whom He is pleased!’ (Luke 2.14 (GNB]). Which is why we have the carol ‘Hark the herald angels sing’. I don’t know what the angels would have sung on the first Good Friday. Perhaps they were too dumbfounded and gob-smacked to sing anything as they saw Jesus, the Son of God, die on the cross in pain and agony, shame and humiliation. Why could God allow this to happen - the worst possible death for the only good and divine person, and for it to be for people who habitually failed to do what was right and good? It was the supreme act of love for the redemption of humankind. If there was nothing the angels could sing on that day of darkness, it changed dramatically on the first Easter morning when it was the disciples who were dumbfounded. The women who went early to the tomb in which Jesus had been laid found it empty (Luke 24.1-3). He had risen from the grave, defeating death and sin. To my mind, there is only one song which the angels could have sung – a chorus of ‘Hallelujahs’. Meaning ‘Praise the Lord’, it is the song we all should sing when we discover that Jesus died for each one of us to bring us forgiveness for our sins so that we can come before God and, in course of time, join in the singing of the angelic choir. ‘Hallelujah’ is the high point of Handel’s ‘Messiah’, but even that, great as it is, falls short of the heavenly version. The hymn I quoted earlier which begins ‘There is singing up in heaven’ goes on to say ‘where angels sing the praises of the Lamb upon the throne’, the Lamb of God, Jesus who willingly went to the Cross so that our sins could be forgiven (1 John 2.2). The praise of the angels for the One who gave up His life for us is recorded in Scripture. John in his vision of heaven saw ‘ten thousand times ten thousand’ sing ‘Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing’ (Rev.5.11-12). That is another great chorus in Handel’s ‘Messiah’, the penultimate chorus before the climactic ‘Amen’ (as in Rev.7.11-12).  For those who recognise that Christ’s rising on Easter morning is personal for them and respond by acknowledging Him as Saviour and serving Him as Lord, Easter is a time to join with the angels and shout ‘Hallelujah, it’s Easter!’ - praise be to God for His great salvation. In fact, it is always time to give thanks and sing redemption’s story.

Mankind doesn’t seem to change. People often engage in building ‘empires’, be they small and personal or large and political. Leaders of nations strive to build up their power and hold on to it by any means they can think of, because they are fearful that others will come along to take over. It was the same in Jesus’ day. At His birth, Herod sought to kill the baby born in Bethlehem as he perceived in Him a threat to his crown (Matt.2.16). At the end of His life, the Romans used extreme measures to subdue any opposition and retain control of their empire. The religious leaders in Jerusalem were no different. They resorted to secret arrest, an unlawful trial and ‘doctoring’ the charges to ensure the execution of the man they feared. In their hastily called meeting of the Sanhedrin, they found Jesus guilty of blasphemy, but changed the accusation to treason, to make sure He received the death penalty when they brought Him before the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate. The result was that, although innocent, He was condemned to the slow painful, shameful death of crucifixion. Those who would build empires today, as Putin seems to want to do for Russia, and even Trump wants to do for America with his suggestions of taking over Greenland, amalgamating Canada with the USA and renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, follow in the wake of a line of ‘empire builders’ in the past 100 years who have used misinformation and false accusations to justify their ambition, and violence to enforce it. Jesus was at the centre of all the action on Good Friday, wrongly arrested, falsely condemned, unjustly crucified. He accepted it all, humbly submitting to the abuse and torture (Mark 14.65, 15.16-20), before facing the terror of the cross. In great humility and in obedience to His Father’s will, He gave up His life for our salvation, offering us forgiveness for our sins and eternal life in the Kingdom of God as we accept Him as our Lord and Saviour and seek to live in His way.  As the execution party laid Him on the cross and drove the nails into His hands and feet, Jesus prayed for their forgiveness (Luke 23.34). There can be no greater example of the gulf, which still exists today, between man’s inhumanity and God’s love for humanity. Christ calls us to follow Him and in humility and love to change the inhumanity still so obvious in the world, and in the actions of those who seek power today, by showing true humanity in our daily living, the humanity of Christ shown in His love, compassion, care and concern for all.

The day on which Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, the day we call Palm Sunday, raised the hopes of a good number of people. It seemed as if their dreams might indeed have some solid foundation. This was a day of great expectations. For the disciples, walking alongside Jesus, there was the hope that, at last, their leader was being recognised for who He was. Slowly, over the 3 years they had been with Him, hearing His teaching and seeing the miracles He had performed, they had come to realise how special Jesus was and, eventually, when Jesus had questioned them, acknowledged He was God’s appointed Messiah, the one long-awaited who would save the nation (Mark 9.27-29). If the people would also acclaim Jesus as the Messiah, what hopes and dreams would be growing in their minds as, step by step, the disciples accompanied Jesus on His approach to the city gate. Great expectations! The crowd of pilgrims coming into Jerusalem at the same time, to celebrate the Passover, would have had their own expectations. Their hopes would be stirred up by the religious fervour of the festival, and by national resentment against the Romans who ruled their land. It was a time when there would be dreams of religious revival and possibly an insurrection which would drive out the Romans. Great expectations! And now they were aware that there was one in their midst who, from what they had heard about Him, might just be the man they were looking to lead them. No wonder they shouted ‘Praise God! God bless him who comes in the name of the Lord! God bless the King of Israel!’ (John12.13), greeting Him by waving palm branches and spreading their cloaks before Him on the road. But there were others with different hopes and expectations. The Pharisees and the religious leaders had a very different view of Jesus as they saw Him coming into the city. In their estimation, He was a challenge to their authority and a threat to their position and status (John 12.19). For a long time they had been plotting to get rid of Him (John 5.15-18 [AV]) and now He was coming into their ‘territory’. They had high hopes that, at last, they would have a chance to finally ‘dispose’ of Him.  Jesus was aware of all these hopes and dreams and expectations. He knew that none of them would be fulfilled, at least not in the way that was expected. As He entered Jerusalem, He knew that, only days ahead, He would be crucified. The dreams of the disciples would be dashed; the hopes of the people for a military defeat of the Romans would come to nothing; only the religious leaders would think that their expectations had been achieved. But even they would soon be dismayed, for Easter lay ahead & Jesus would have great expectations of His followers.