During Lent my mind turns naturally towards the hill where Jesus hung on the cross. There was an earlier hill which Luke tells us about.

When Jesus began his ministry he taught in the synagogue of his home town. He probably knew the names of most of the people there.

In the end they were so infuriated by Jesus that they dragged up to the top of a cliff close to the town to throw him to his death. This was a sustained and brutal attack.

It must have been terrifying and it is unlikely that it left Jesus uninjured. At the last moment they stopped and Jesus walked away.

The love Jesus has for us all meant that this did not deter him. He finished his earthly ministry – endured the anguish of Gethsemane and the agony of the cross – to give each one of us salvation through faith. Jesus was someone of courage and love.

Simon Baker, an elder of Trinity United Reformed Church, Brownhill, Blackburn