There is something strange and paradoxical about the faith of Christians, and many people struggle to understand how we can celebrate the life of someone who died on a cross; someone who didn't fit the conventional criteria of success; someone who brought good and joy to the world, yet was executed by the very people to whom he brought goodness. How could God take someone who was penniless and make us wealthy; someone who was homeless and provide us with a many-roomed mansion in our Father's house? What a paradox!

Many people find the central beliefs of the Christian faith very strange indeed. They do not understand how God could choose a savior of the world who would die by the hands of the world; and that the day of his amazing death would be Good Friday: Here was a king, born not in a …