IMagazine: May-July 2025
Victory!
On 7th May 1945 news came through, from General Eisenhower’s Headquarters, that the German army had, at 2.41am, signed the Act of Unconditional Surrender. The long war in Europe had finally ended.
The following day, Tuesday 8th May at 3pm, Winston Churchill addressed the nation on the wireless and declared that it was ‘Victory in Europe Day’ (soon to be known as VE Day).
That afternoon, standing at a window of the Ministry of Health building in Whitehall, he addressed a huge crowd, and declared that it was ‘your victory.’
And, as he did so, on the old recordings, you can hear the Church bells ringing in the background – presumably those of Westminster Abbey. Those bells had been silent since the beginning of the war in 1939 – ringing of Church bells being, for the duration of the war, a signal of a German airborne invasion – but now they sounded a joyous chime of peace and freedom.
Victory had been achieved, peace was secured, and from the rubble of a devastated Europe, a new and better future could, and would, be built.
All of us today live freely in the light of that victory – a victory over the deep darkness that the evil of Nazism had cast over the world.
A month earlier, on Sunday 1st April 1945, another victory had been remembered around the world – a victory that has been marked every year since 33AD. It was Easter Day – the day when Christians remember the Lord Jesus Christ’s defeat of death, and his glorious physical resurrection.
A thick darkness had encircled the Cross as the Son of God died. The darkness descended because Jesus, as the Bible teaches, was taking the righteous judgment of God against His people’s sin upon Himself.
But three days later, He was raised to life. And all of us today live in the light of that victory – a victory that points us, even in the darkest of times, to a better future. Through His death and resurrection, Jesus has secured for everyone who places their faith in Him, peace with God, an eternal home with Him in Heaven, and a future resurrection body like His own.
His is the greatest victory. His is the victory that, like no other, echoes through all of history. And His is the victory that brings to us the hope we all need.
As you read this, you will have (or maybe you will be about to – if you get your magazine in good time!) been able to celebrate and remember VE Day. And it must have been an amazing day back in 1945, and such an incredible relief after all those years of suffering. But, I wonder, did you let Easter just pass you by?
If you did, can I encourage you to take some time to pause and think again about why Jesus did what He did.
St Peter, reflecting on what the prophet Isaiah had said back in the Old Testament (in Isaiah 53), wrote these words about what was happening when Jesus died:
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