Good Friday To All
A quick observation about Good Friday…
Much to my pleasant surprise I have had the opportunity in the past few weeks to introduce some of my friends to the Gospel—as in, explaining it’s meaning. (When something like this happens, it’s always a strange experience because I’m not very good at talking out loud.) I typically start with what Jesus has done for me, what he is doing for the world, and what he will complete at the end of human history. I explain the counter narrative that the God of space-time reality, condescended to our state of existence, subjecting himself to time and entropy out of love and empathy, to pursue us, that we may live as we were meant to live: empowered by God as his hands and feet in the created order.
That kind of stuff. But people usually have questions, concerns, etc.
While we have plenty of historical lines of analysis that would lead us to believe the early Christians truly believed they saw something spectacular on Easter Sunday—cutting against the conventional wisdom of the day that, typically, when someone dies, they stay dead—I am sympathetic to those that have difficulty with the idea of a resurrection in the middle of human history. It is, by definition, a miracle to be taken on faith and eyewitness testimony. I think it would be disingenuous to think that people back then were stupid and believed anything they heard. There would have been speculation, inquiry, and verification of the events, both by the Jewish authorities—very much unamused by Jesus’ antics in life—as well as by those who wanted to know why the Apostles continued in their veneration of their founding leader and not, say, Jesus’ brother James (*in Grandpa Simpsons voice* “as was the style of the time”). That the accounts contain claims made by women, whom Josephus counted as invalid in Jewish legal proceedings, would have also met a certain “criterion of embarrassment”:
15. But let not a single witness be credited, but three, or two at the least, and those such whose testimony is confirmed by their good lives. But let not the testimony of women be admitted, on account of the levity and boldness of their sex Nor let servants be admitted to give testimony, on account of the ignobility of their soul; since it is probable that they may not speak truth, either out of hope of gain, or fear of punishment. But if any one be believed to have borne false witness, let him, when he is convicted, suffer all the very same punishments which he against whom he bore witness was to have suffered. The Antiquities of the Jews, 4.219
Furthermore, some of the earliest insults leveraged toward Christianity, pagan or otherwise, were accusations that the Christians worshiped a corpse god. In popular culture, this same jibe has been rearticulated with satirical science-fantasy properties like Warhammer 40,000, also featuring an enthroned “Emperor of Mankind” seated on a throne in a state that appears dead, with only the faintest signs of life sustained by the deaths of a 1,000 psychic mutants every single day. Others in the past have told me that it’s a copout to say that Jesus was crucified, and then was risen, and now happens to “rule the world” from heaven, despite the affairs of the world being as they are. But that requires more discussion on what “ruling the world” means in the context of Jesus and his Kingdom, which is beyond the scope of most conversations!
But Good Friday, it’s “goodness” specifically, carries with it some caveats. Why was it “good” to begin with? Good for us, in that sin was defeated by the Messiah’s victory on the cross. Which begs the question, “well, what is ‘Sin’ then?” Sin is the resultant activity and product of our inborn belief that our agency takes precedence over God’s will and purpose for us. “Well, why is that a bad thing?” you would ask. My reply would be to point out the fruit of that agency: our wars, our inequality, our selfishness, our inclination to self-preservation over another. Case in point: Good Friday is only good because of Jesus’ work on the cross. Everything else was very bad.
I remember going to a church after college that really tried to ham up the dourness of Good Friday, with grim lighting and insisting that we all leave the church silently after the service concluded. There is space for that, certainly, but rather than dwell on death, I would prefer to dwell on hope. That even in our darkest hour of life we are still connected to the Hope of a restored communion with God. And for those of you that aren’t Christian, the “hope” that empowers a certain people dedicated to living out a reality of peace and reconciliation, who are willing to walk with you in crisis and help pick you up when you fall, should also give you hope. I don’t speak of the pretenders who live lives counter to the Gospel, but those who live to emulate the person and work of Christ.
So, here’s to hope, which sustains, and to Jesus who is hope personified in victory
