Edith Bowman, Olly Alexander and Jay's Virtual Radio Quiz

Good news for Chocoholics. The eggs might be gone, but Easter is still not done! There are, in fact, two Easters; ours – the Western version – and the second, celebrated by the Eastern half of the Church, which doesn’t happen until May 2nd. So, for all those who love Easter, there’s the excuse to do it all again next month.

I love Easter – and not just for the eggs. Every year it inspires me. Let me explain. 

In my late teens, I met a girl. But her parents disapproved of me and prevented her from seeing me. I’m mixed race, and my face didn’t fit. Because of my ‘Anglo-Indian-ness’, they felt that if their daughter fell in love with me – and we married – our children might be, as they put it to me, ‘throwbacks’. That judgement destroyed my fragile sense of self-confidence like nothing I’d ever experienced before. I was stuck with no way forward.

Months later, still depressed by the curse of those words, I found myself listening to a preacher explain the famous Easter story. “It was Friday” he bellowed, “Jesus’ face didn’t fit. He was betrayed, crucified and buried in a cave, behind a HUGE stone. The story was over”. He paused, but then thundered “Sunday was coming! A small group of Jesus’ close friends - headed down to his tomb, just to pay their last respects. To their surprise that giant rock had been rolled away. Jesus’ tomb was empty, and they are greeted with the message that he was alive; somehow risen from the dead!”

I was transfixed. My girlfriend’s parent’s rejection had floored me. But, now suddenly – inexplicably – I felt like the huge barrier they’d placed in front of me had somehow been ‘rolled away’. Their attitude had blocked my future, but suddenly I had hope. Lots of it. And that sense has never left me since.

So, that’s it. Every year Easter inspires me again. Jesus walked out of that tomb. The stone designed to stop him was rolled away. But it’s a challenge too; to keep doing my bit to build a more inclusive society, one where no one ever feels that their face doesn’t fit; one where we ensure that the stones and barriers erected to destroy hope are rolled away.