Hopefully Good Friday
Jude Madubuike | 3 April 2026

Hopefully Good Friday — that is how I find myself greeting this day. Not with easy cheerfulness, but with a determined, eyes-open hope. The kind of hope that looks at the cross, looks at the news, looks at the world, and still dares to believe that Love has the final word.

The story of Jesus is a story of sacrifice and grace. He came not as a conqueror but as a servant, and in giving His life, He offered humanity something no weapon has ever been able to provide: redemption, dignity, and the possibility of peace. The dove hovers over His whole story, from the waters of baptism to the glory of resurrection. Love came down. Love gave everything. He calls us to live by the Golden Rule: do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

We are living through a remarkable convergence of sacred seasons. Ramadan, Jewish celebrations, the Persian festival of Nowruz, light overcoming darkness, and here across Christendom, the final steps of Lent toward the cross and beyond it, toward the empty tomb. Across faiths, across cultures, across borders, humanity is turning its face toward hope and light.

But that hope was pierced on Palm Sunday, the day we remember Christ’s entry into Jerusalem and the beginning of His journey through Holy Week toward the cross. At least 27 people were killed in an attack on a mostly Christian community in Plateau State, Nigeria. Families gathered in prayer met by gunfire instead. We cannot sing resurrection songs while ignoring crucifixions still happening in our time.

Why would any human being decide to take the life of another, provoked or not? This should never become the norm.

This is also why; the question of nuclear weapons cannot be separated from our faith. There are approximately 12,500 nuclear warheads in the world today, enough to end the world that God so loved, many times over. And yet imagine what we could build instead with that same ingenuity and resource. Better lives. Healthier communities. A future worth inheriting.

Easter matters so deeply because Jesus’ resurrection is not simply doctrine. It is God’s most deliberate act. The disarming grace of God, refusing to let death have the final word, lifting our hearts toward a better world, a better humanity, a better earth. That grace moves through people. It moved through a stable in Bethlehem. It moved through a garden tomb. It can move through you.

So I speak directly to faith leaders: imams, rabbis, priests, pastors, elders, and all who carry a lamp in their communities. This is your moment. Be light bearers. Look your congregations in the eye and say: we were not made for this. We were made for life, for love, for one another.

Jesus rose. And His rising is an invitation to lift our eyes, lift our hearts, and lead the way toward a world worthy of the love that came down for it.

You shall not kill. Ever? That question is the beginning of a conversation this world urgently needs. I invite you to decide.

To explore the Nuclear Morality Flowchart and work through these questions for yourself, visit: nuclearmorality.com