Being a pastor, I have a lot of Facebook friends who are pastors. So I see a lot of their Holy Week posts on my newsfeed.One that struck me this morning was about Good Friday. It said, "No one wants Good Friday. No one likes Good Friday. Everyone wants Easter."
Which made me think, "So what's wrong with me that I like Good Friday the best out of all the days of Holy Week, including Easter?
I mean, yikes... Easter should be my favorite, right? It's about life and resurrection, lilies and bunnies and eggs... oh and of course, the promises of something better. That the power of death has been destroyed, and all that jazz. So what is wrong with me for liking Good Friday? Am I some sort of depressed sado-masochist for LIKING Good Friday?
Well, that possibility is up for debate I suppose.
To be clear, I don't like it because of its brutality and utter sinfulness of the day. That's not it.
I like it because it's the day out of all the holidays we celebrate as a Christian that actually delves into and goes where my life is at much of the time. The resurrection is awesome - it's a promise I preach about every weekend. It is the comfort and hope I hold out to every grieving member of my congregation. It is the promise I cling to on a daily basis as well.
Yet Good Friday touches on the area of life that hits home for me. The realities of the world we live in. A world mired in sin. A world where death and destruction seem to have no end. Where pain and suffering are real, and the fact that I have a God who has gone down that path, too - is of immense comfort.
The Jesus of Good Friday is the Jesus who begs, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do." The Good Friday Jesus is the Jesus who, despite being scorned and mocked is able to do what few humans would be able to do in that same circumstance - recognize the ignorance and sinful nature of the human soul and rather than condemn it, he seeks to redeem it.
I can sit here on Good Friday and feel the weight of the world pushing down on me and in some small way - I am able to relate to the weight that was pushing down on Jesus. I'm not facing a cruel and unusual death, mind you (at least, not to my knowledge at the moment), the sins of the entire world are not being heaped upon me (my own sin and the sin of those around me is plenty to deal with, believe me) but there is something about solidarity in suffering through life's pain, disappointments, and agonies, that is a comfort to me.
For the reality is as humans, we live in pain. Most of us will live three times longer than Jesus did with pain, suffering and death all around us. The heartbreak of broken relationships. The long-drawn out pain of illnesses as our bodies deteriorate. The pain of loved ones who have departed from our lives. The heavy strain of economic and job stresses. For others throughout the world it involves living under oppressive regimes or in the midst of a civil war where you don't know from day to day how your life is going to be ripped from you. The horrors you will witness that will forever scar your memory.
Good Friday is where I live... it's where the world lives... so Good Friday is also where I find the most comfort and where I can find some common ground with God. This is a God who cries out, "My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?" A God who knows exactly what it is like to feel human. To feel abandoned, ignored, and forsaken.
That's a God I trust to be my judge. One who has walked the multiple miles in my shoes. Who has seen the decisions we are forced to make on a daily basis that sometimes offers up no clear-cut right answer. Who knows the struggles. Who knows that we fail miserably on a regular basis to be the people he wants us to be. Who knows that while we proclaim ourselves to be Easter people, we still live in the reality of a Good Friday world. A world that probably would not have hesitated to demonize Jesus for his views if he were alive today, and crucify through other means - the media, public opinion, etc. In many places - he would have been killed just as summarily as he was 2000 years ago for his teachings that are so contrary to human nature. So contrary to the way the world operates.
Like every Christian, the promise of Easter - of new life and resurrection - is one I cling to and hold out to all as the enduring promise we are all given by this God who walked the walk and talked the talk. Who didn't remain on his lofty perch in the heavenly realms doling out seemingly whimsical orders of smiting and destruction. Instead, he came down here. Got messy. Got real.
I am an Easter person because my hope lies in the resurrection of the dead, that God has something to say about death because I can believe in a God who would go to these lengths. I am Easter person because God takes Good Friday and turns it on its head. I can believe and I can trust a God who would come down to earth and go through this mess we call life for our sake. So I believe and I trust the resurrection.
