Good Friday 2007

What’s so “good” about it? Is it because it was “good” that the Blood of the Paschal Lamb has been spilled and offered for our sake? Is it “good” that another Man was brutally murdered so that we might live or because we did not want to hear what He had to say? Is it “good” that so many of Jesus’ followers turned on Him, abandoned Him, or even denied Him, when things turned ugly and Jesus seemed no longer “the man”?

Because of the name alone, Good Friday is probably one of the most misunderstood of all holiday observations (how many today have heard the greeting, “Happy Good Friday!”) because the crucifixion of Jesus can hardly be construed as “good”. If there could be anything “good” from it, it could only be so by virtue of our 20/20 hindsight. We can see from what is written and by our faith that there is no power man wields on this earth that the Lord God cannot overcome.

I also happen to think that it is careless theology that suggests that Jesus’ brutal death was by the design and/or intent of the Lord God because the death of Jesus was ultimately a rejection of everything He tried to teach us; it was a rejection of the One who sent Him. Whether the crucifixion was foretold does not necessarily imply that it was foreordained or intended to happen as it did.

Beyond this, however, what do we need to be focused on when we enter into such an observation as Good Friday? It seems unfair that we would emotionally or spiritually thrash ourselves with such a colossal guilt trip by which we are convicted of our part in it because, after all, this was long before our time. As a physical confrontation which took place so long ago, it does not seem conducive to spiritual development to beat ourselves over the head with something we may or may not have actually taken part in had we been alive during that time.

Pope Benedict recently spoke at a church in Italy about the reality of hell as a “real place” and caused me to consider whether our need to know about this real place had any relevance to our spiritual journey. I think that, yes, we have a need to know and a more acute need to acknowledge the spiritual reality of hell but not so much so that we can beat ourselves up with it or use it as a spiritual stick with which to beat others over the head. In much the same way, Good Friday requires of us a spiritual acknowledgment of something very real which took place so long ago that we may never be fully able to comprehend. This does not mean, however, that we should permit ourselves to ignore its reality nor overlook its relevance.

I will not suggest that each of us needs to feel guilty about what happened on that dark day so long ago. I will suggest, however, that we not allow this day to pass without gazing upon the Cross and considering the very real and very dark capacity of humanity to succumb and surrender to evil. This, in our observation, is where the contemplation must necessarily stop.