Remember Remember
When I was growing up, Bonfire Night was one of the highlights of the year. Wrapping up warm in your hat and scarf, toffee apples on sticks, the ‘woo’s and ‘wow’s of the families as the bangers and crackers go bang and crack in displays of beauty and colour that mobile phones aren’t yet able to fully capture. And the piece de resistance, the stack of wood making up the great bonfire upon which the effigy of a man is burnt.
The other name for Bonfire Night is ‘Guy Fawkes Night’, named after one of the conspirators who tried to blow up King James I and the houses of Parliament on 5th November 1605. Long story short, the plot failed (apologies for spoilers) and the treasonous schemers were arrested, tried, tortured, and then hung, drawn, and quartered.
To many Brits, the celebration of Guy Fawkes’ failed ‘Gunpowder Plot’ is just something that has become part of the rich tapestry of British culture and one doesn’t really think about it much until you have to explain it to someone else. I have recently had the pleasure of sharing the story with my Dutch wife who couldn’t quite understand why we celebrate this specific occasion above others.
My conclusion is that we recall this event so well because of the rhyme which children have now been learning for nearly 400 years:
‘Remember, remember the 5th of November
Gunpowder, treason, and plot.
I see of no reason why Gunpowder treason,
Should ever be forgot.’
There are many events in history which deserve the same treatment, that they should be remembered and sung about from generation to generation.
The account of Jesus’ death and resurrection is one such event that should never be forgotten but for very different reasons to Guy Fawkes’ schemes. Guy Fawkes's life was taken because he tried to bring death, whereas Jesus freely accept death so that any who believes may receive life.
Jesus offers life and forgiveness to everyone who is what the Bible describes as a ‘Guy Fawkes’, a rebel against the king. Psalm 103:19, shows us God’s throne and rule over all and as we consider our own response to him we’ve all lived as if saying to God on the throne of our lives, ‘Get off, you’re in my seat’. That is what sin is: cosmic treason.
“All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” Romans 3:23. We’re all guilty of seeking to put the gunpowder under the King’s throne of our heart and worthy of punishment but Jesus, the Son of God the rightful King of that throne offers to take the punishment for you. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
By all means sing, “Remember, remember the 5th November” but Jesus offers us a better song, a song of life, forgiveness, and eternal reconciliation with the true King.
