For some reason, marketing companies have had difficulty putting "the real meaning of Easter" on a card. Funny, that.

Christians are a gloomy lot. Sure, they have some very lively churches (ever seen a proper big Pentecostal service? Walks a fine line between "amazing" and "terrifying"), but they are all obsessed with death and pain. That's not a new thing. It goes right back to the early church - the Romans thought the early Christians were cannibals because of the focus on Jesus' body and blood in the Eucharist - and even earlier, to Jesus' words in Matthew 5:

Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.

Jesus made it abundantly obvious that pain and difficulties were part and parcel of being a Christian. That became most obvious on the day we're currently remembering, Good Friday, when he was executed by the Romans. In case you've forgotten, that execution was in the most humiliating and painful way the Romans could dream up, and given that we're talking about a culture which spiced up its theatres by killing people on stage, that's no small statement. Jesus showed in the clearest possible way precisely what his followers were letting themselves in for.

Paul picked up the theme in his letters, as did Peter. (References to some examples are here, here, here, here and here, if you're interested.) If that wasn't enough, Revelation is almost entirely about the horrible things that are going to happen to Christians in the end times. Unfortunately, it's so full of metaphor and imagery that quite what those horrible things are going to be is anyone's guess. Fortunately, that wasn't the point of the book, which was much more about the fact that the suffering does eventually end. Taken with the notoriously blood-drenched Old Testament, you might think that Christians are so focused on the bad things that might happen to them that they don't pay any attention to what is actually happening.

That, however, is not the case. Yes, the Bible does tell us about terrible things, but that's because terrible things happen. It gives us an explanation for them, tells us what to do to cope with them, and exhorts us to prevent them from happening to other people. There are literally hundreds of Bible verses covering justice for the poor, social responsibility, care for the disadvantaged, and an overwhelmingly pervasive sense that God cares about the problems and wants to help us.

When Jesus told people that if they followed him, they were opening themselves up to a world of pain, it really wasn't one of the greatest advertising pitches in history. "Roll up, roll up! Get executed in a number of pointy and painful ways!" He didn't promise riches, or fame, or power, or authority. Neither, it's important to note, did he promise comfort, tranquillity or fellowship, although they are often present too. That's why I get annoyed with people who say "you should become a Christian/Muslim/Buddhist/Pastafarian because you will feel better" or "because you will have peace". None of the things that a religion can give you are worth anything unless the claims of that religion are actually true. That was the one reason to follow Christ back in the first century, and it's the only reason now.

He certainly believed that what he said was true. That's why, 2000-odd years ago, he was nailed to a piece of wood, and that's why we still remember it on Good Friday.