i surely don't claim to have all the answers, but maybe, just maybe, by God's grace this will make some sense and shed some light on these not so new and very common questions surrounding this "christian holiday". It helps to start with Jesus, and not in some weird wack-job, knocking on people's doors kinda way, but just because ultimately it is about him, and here's why...
we know that the world we live in is not an ideal place, it does not seem to exist for our benefit or good, and life is definitely not, in spite of how some might think, "what you make it". we're building more jails, our yards have fences, our houses have security locks and screens, our cars have alarms, we have car insurance, home insurance, life insurance, CTP insurance, liability insurance, funeral insurance, and we continue to come up with more ways to secure ourselves, our family, our property and more things to insure because there is this natural anticipation that the stranger outside is more clever and more evil than we are and therefore have to continually come up with more and better ways to keep ourselves safe. the natural human propensity is to assume the worst, prepare for the worst, expect the worst, and why should we think any other way if all of life and society continually positively reinforce this. we are naturally bad people with bad idea and bad intentions, and therefore expect others to be the same also. so what does this have to do with good friday?
lets start at the beginning, briefly. when the first people were on earth, they were made good (yes, made, evolution is a very weak theory at best and all efforts to create scientific backing has been less than convincing, and lets face it, scientifically and academically poorly constructed). people then decided to separate themselves from the God who made them by wanting to become like Him (something we still struggle with today, wanting to be our own gods, make our own decisions, living our lives selfishly and inwardly as an individual instead of selflessly and outwardly as a community), and by doing this trying to run their own lives without a conscience or authority. the problem is though, the moment you pull a plant from the goodness of it's soil it dies and ceases to be a good plant, all that would've been a joyful life is lost ... and so we pulled ourself from our life source and happiness who is God, and all our joy and goodness was lost. the God who made people out of love was terribly hurt and angered by this betrayal and since He is good and just this terrible betrayal and separation deserved punishment, the punishment of which was death.
in early times, this good Creator God, out of love and grace, was willing to accept an animal life in the place of the deserving human life. there was to be a special day, once a year, where the people would come to the temple (God's resting place on earth, or actual presence on earth) and the high priest (mediator between the good and rightfully angry Creator God and His bad and selfish people) would then intercede or mediate between the people and God, making the relationship right again, appeasing God's anger for another year by killing a perfect and scar-free and clean animal, the blood of which is shed and therefore hiding the people's bad deeds and thoughts and motives in the animal sacrifice, so that God and His people could be united again for an amount of time.
this happened for hundreds of years, and history tells us that since this was never really enough, that God had another plan, from the beginning, a permanent one, to replace the temporary one. Since people were, and still are, and always will be imperfect by nature, their sacrifice were required and deserved, and animals would never be enough, and would ultimately not permanently satisfy a perfect God. So the Creator God in His goodness and grace bridged the gap created by us by humbly entering into human history as the man Jesus. Like only a perfect person could, Jesus lived a perfect and good and selfless life, therefore not falling under the same judgement deserving of death, also meaning that if he had to die that his death would not be permanent but result in life since the penalty cannot apply to a perfect and good life. Jesus willingly and selflessly, like the animal sacrifice, took upon himself the bad deeds and thoughts and motives of all the people believing in him and made the relationship between God and His people right again by appeasing God's anger, this time not for a year, not temporary, but forever, permanently.
Jesus was treated like we deserve to be treated (he was mocked, his friends betrayed him, his leaders sold him out, the system he was under failed him, he was unfairly accused and sentenced without proof, he was beaten till skin and muscle and bones were literally ripped from his body. as if that wasn't enough, he then died the death we should have died and still deserve to die, nailed onto a wooden cross. on the cross all the low-lives, the perverts, the prostitutes, the sluts, the abusive husbands, the drunks, the druggies, the hypocrites gathered and mocked him and laughed at him and gave him the finger ... all of this in a public place, that if it was today would be like in the car park of the local shopping center. that should have been and still should be us.
so how is this good news?
we did this to God, and God did this for us!
...blog "+easter.sunday" is a continuation of this blog ... comming soon ...
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