The Passion

On Sunday the 16th March the first part of the BBC's new adaptation of the Easter Story will begin. It will the first of 6 parts to be shown on successive nights in the lead up to Easter.
Nigel Stafford Clark has said that: “My job is telling stories. The fact that it is the backbone of one of the world’s great religions is what, for me, has stopped it being told properly as a story before because people back away from it. It’s not just a story that is told in churches. It really happened,”.

“Our version is not remotely controversial. There is no attempt to twist anything – you don’t see Jesus sleeping with Mary Magdalene or anything like that. We have tried to make it feel like it is really happening. And because you understand why people are behaving the way they are, what Jesus is doing becomes even more extraordinary.”

“With the world the way it is at the moment,” he continues, “anything that is about something that goes beyond your everyday existence is of value. People are looking for something beyond their new car. Telling a story like this quenches that thirst. It makes you feel there is something beyond your own limited existence.”

The challenge is to be ready to watch and then talk to our friends, encouraging them to read with us the real gospel accounts and to understand not just the events of history but their significance then and now in terms of eternal thing.

Are we ready for Easter? We gear up for months to Christmas but Easter seems almost to be secondary. Why not use this series with its flaws to explain to your friends the significance of a story that is like no other, because it holds out the promsie of salvation from hell, forgiveness for guilt and relationship with God.