Being an annual event, Good Friday doesn’t seem particularly odd. And yet the reason the nation is granted an extra day to wash the car and go and buy garden furniture at B&Q is because Jesus Christ was crucified this Friday – the Passover Friday – nearly two thousand years ago.
The passion story, and the crucifixion itself is not a pretty scene. It is ugly, brutal and distressing. Jesus, an innocent man, is flogged, whipped, spat on, forced to carry a cross, then nailed to it, and hung up to die. It is an inventively cruel mode of execution that is deeply unflattering to the society that not only dreamed it up but carried it out many times.
There seems little Good about the Friday in question, then. And it gets worse. It would be bad enough if this Jesus of Nazareth were merely an innocent man. But he is not. He is Jesus of Heaven too. When he was born, he was called Emmanuel – which means ‘God with us’. And we tried him, beat him, mocked him and killed him. In the grand scheme of things that is not a Good day. It is possibly the worst of all days.
In one sense, Good Friday represents the darkest, strangest, sickest joke: God became man and walked the earth. He made the lame walk, he made the blind see and he commanded storms with his voice. Even if you’re not a Christian, you have to admit that this man Jesus lived a wonderful life.
And yet our reaction two thousands years ago is depressing and yet unsurprising. We killed him. We didn’t even do it in private, hoping no-one would notice, but in plain view of the world – with the authority of the religious community and the state.
What is even stranger about this event is that the Jesus Christ of the New Testament was able to raise people from the dead. Three such instances are testified. In the most famous case, in which he raised Lazarus who had been dead in the tomb for three whole days before being called out, many witnesses reported back to the Jewish authorities, who were furious and declared that Jesus would have to die. It seems a curious action plan to dispose of this troublesome man, given his astonishing powers.
The crucifixion itself is steeped in all kinds of irony. Jesus was ‘crowned’ with a crown of thorns. A sign was written up saying ‘This is the King of the Jews’. They all thought it a hilarious joke, and yet that is exactly what he was. True King of the Jews – a direct descendant from David and Abraham. Priests mocked Jesus saying ‘He saved others, but he can’t save himself!’ But he could. He just chose not to. What is going on?
The clues are all there in the story. It is Passover. The day when God’s people would slaughter a perfect lamb, daub the blood on the doorframe and escape the judgment of the angels – and allowed leave their slavery to Pharaoh, to go freely into the land, to be the people that God made them to be.
By allowing himself to be slaughtered, Jesus showed himself to be the true lamb of the Passover, giving his life so that his people could escape the judgment that is referred to throughout the Bible; to live freely in the land, to be the people God made us to be. Jesus saves from our slavery to the madness of sin, rebellion and hatred, the kind of madness that blinds our eyes and makes us kill those with power to open truly blind eyes. Despite gruesome appearances, that day on which Jesus died, that Friday, was a Good one.
Interesting perspective – bit of a thinker, and I shall probably have to read this again to get the best out of it.