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He was a failure. Well he was.

He finished up a total mess. The whole Christian thing begins with a man everybody called a failure. They even jeered and spat as he died. Imagine you and your friends gathering round someone dying in a hospital bed and yelling "You stupid git." Then for good measure you gob on him as you leave. That's what it was like - he was a washout.

He didn't want all the titles people give him today -Sovereign Lord, King of Kings, Wonderful Saviour - names that are really just religious jargon - and in his lifetime he certainly didn't win any of them.

He finished being the worst thing a Jew could possibly be - and he was a Jew - a curse on his own people. For they said a hanged man is accursed by God . The final humiliation was to be stripped naked. For a Jew to appear naked was the ultimate insult, the final mark down. To be (a) crucified and (b) naked was worse than being stoned to death. You were a nobody.

So you see you are in good company, for if you are honest with yourself you know you, also, are a failure. Of course we pretend not to be, we keep up a good act. We do not display our nobodyness. We paint our houses, clean our cars, pretend that sex is O.K or that we are now beyond that sort of thing; say just the right things. The world says you have got to appear as a success, that's the name of the game. And if you don't measure up - you're dead meat But it's the wrong game.

[Interlude - a dead meat story. In major cities in South America there are thousands and thousands and thousands of orphan children. They run wild, appear and disappear everywhere like human rats. They scavenge and steal, harassing respectable citizens. They are known as the street children In San Paulo the police (though they deny it) arrange most days to kill a few, to keep the streets clean. The children are a living sign of a nation failing to share its wealth and care for its people, and they can't bear it.]

We go for results and get tickled pink if we win, especially if we come out on top. We don't like to think of ourselves as hypocrites, but we are. Jesus had a name for hypocrites: "Painted sepulchres" he called them, all white-perfect on the outside but inside .... That's why they hanged him of course, they couldn't bear it.

And you know don't you? We don't want others to see how naked we are underneath. We know how many times we have failed others and even more important how many times we have failed ourselves. But we keep covering it up and pretend it never happens. Why else do we blame other people and get so self-righteous? Just imagine what a changed place the world would be if there were. no self-righteousness. ('I'm all right and you're not. '

It's the wrong game. Our failures are just as important as our successes They deserve equal acknowledgement and welcome. We are made for failure just as much as for success. If we don't take risks (and risk failure) we never get off the starting block, never leave the titty-bottle. Failure is as much part of life as eating and sleeping and we fail many more times than we succeed. If we never fail we never arrive.

Our failures are not the end of everything. In human terms they may be disastrous, the worst possible pain, and, if our proud cocky Ego will not accept it we simply turn everything into Disney world. Perpetual great escapes full of anxieties and depressions. But if our failures are faced in our hearts and lived through, they open a new way. Forgiveness, as ever, is the key.

Jesus is saying to every human soul on this earth -"do not be afraid when it has to happen of being crucified along with me. I know what it's like. Failure may be the last thing you want but it may be the best thing you can have."

For a Christian and anyone else who is hungry to know - Good Friday, the ultimate hellhole, and Easter Day, unbelievable new life, go together. Life and death are full of impossible miracles.