Good Friday - What "Good" is it?

[Editor: Unfortunately, due to an email glitch, this article was severely delayed]

Friday 2nd April 2010. What's so special, or what's so good about this Friday? Well...

It's Friday. It's the last day of the normal working week. I immediately think of a recent popular phrase, "Thank Crunchy it's Friday". OK so it was an advert, but I happened to like Crunchies when I was a kid, and that's good enough for me. We're off to a good start.

Life is set out in a sort of linear experience of time. We are all on this journey through time and as individuals we inhabit a specific period in time, interacting with others around us in this general time line. All the people we can communicate with have many differing birth dates and we will all die at many differing times in the future. However in one sense, because of this, we can access each other's experiences from different points in time from our own.

Many people collect or invest in antiques which can be anything from 50 years old (Crumbs! I just I'm an antique. Now that is special because antiques become more and more valuable and more and more sought after as they get older) to thousands of years old. You can hold or touch an item that someone else held or crafted all those years ago. I see that as a sort of time travel experience. The item is a link between the past and the present. And we can learn from those items and build a picture of at least part of our history. History is important to us because it has such a knock on affect on our world. We can't escape history. It happened.

Back to 2nd April 2010. The weather is awful. It's 9:45am as I type, and at 10:15am I will make my way to our local Anglican church, where I will meet with other hopefully like-minded people. Today we will have a short service of remembrance in the Anglican Church, and then slowly (well maybe a bit quicker today because of the rain) via Market Place, and Carrington Way, up to the grassy area opposite The Co-operative Store, where we plant a bit of wood in the ground. During this walk we will sing songs and say prayers.

What a weird thing to do. I take one look out of the window and my brain instantly (very instantly) tells me that there are a bucket load of other more appealing things that I would much prefer to do on such a miserable day. Who wants to leave a warm and comfortable home to get cold and wet, sing songs and say prayers? I must be crazy. Either that or there has to be a pretty good reason to go against all normal human logic. Is it possible, I ask?

So what is this remembrance about? Today the Christian church all over the world gathers to remember a man who died a very cruel and painful death on a cross outside Jerusalem circa 2000 years ago. In itself there is nothing special about that. Since that bloke's death, millions (probably billions of people all over the world and through the ages have died. The church talks about this man being nailed to a cross (crucifixion). This was the ultimate horrible death. Again, I see that since his time many people of all ages have died equally, and possibly more cruel deaths. So what's all the fuss?

I suppose we need to look further and deeper if we are to discover even an inkling of the truth behind this particular death. What makes this bloke's death so important to us, all of 2000 years later? There must be something very special that causes the Christian church worldwide to remember it. After all, modern man can gloss over many, many deaths today without even trying. Today, we live in what seems to be a very cold and callous world where we completely ignore (or try to) the plight of many people and countries, where such delights as genocide are underway. That is, unless that country has valuable resources that help to bring wealth and power to more economically advanced nations. That is all that's needed to bring swift and sometimes terrible action. This is a sad indictment of our modern world structure. The desire for power and wealth has become a truly corrupting influence in all nations, without exception. We live in an imperfect world, with imperfect people, and even as individuals we all have our moments. Our lives are filled with ups and downs. We all have the capacity to do both good and evil deeds. However, documented history tells us that 2000 years ago this particular bloke called Jesus (modern translation of the name) made a huge impact in the area we now call Israel, and eventually far beyond. He is described as not being a stunning person. The inference is that he was a fairly plain person. However in the short space of 3 years he is documented as having such an impact on the people of his time and area that the effects have lasted until this very day. Maybe if today's modern and sophisticated people could get to grips with what he did, we too would see some changes for the better in our time.

Many people, both secular and religious, have, and still write about this Jesus. It seems that he was someone who broke all the rules of the establishment. In his short three years travelling around his land he taught and encouraged everyone to:

• Love God
• Love their neighbours as they love themselves

Strange though it may seem, that seems pretty good advice to me. He went much further by teaching people that his death meant more. He was creating a life bridge between this earth and a place called the Heaven. We all die sometime, but Jesus is teaching us that this needn't be the end. Jesus tells us that beyond this life there is a place called Heaven. This is where His father God lives, and we can go there too.

Now here's the rub. To get there we need to be perfect, nothing bad in us. No bad words, deeds, thoughts etc. Bummer! I may be a valuable antique in this life, but I am very far from being perfect. So I guess that's it. I have failed and fallen short. And there's nothing I can do about it. I can't help it. I get stuff wrong, and I upset people, even though I don't mean to. I know that I am well stuffed because the bible tells me that sin (bad stuff) means death and no Heaven. Big bummer!

Hold that thought a minute. I just remembered that my old Sunday school teacher said that there's a verse in the bible that says:

"For God so loved the earth that He gave His one and only son, that whoever believes in Him will not die but have eternal life. God didn't send His Son to condemn the world, but to save the world."

Check it out in the New Testament. Gospel of John Chapter 3 verses 16 & 17. This sounds like a pretty important verse to me. Maybe I have a chance after all. Just read verse 18. I knew it. It was too good. There had to be a snag. Read this one.

"Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever doesn't believe is condemned already."

Now that is one clever verse. This God is sneaky and clever. He gives us a way out, so that when we die on this earth we can get to Heaven. But it's our choice. He lets us judge ourselves. We don't have to get qualifications. We simply have to believe in Jesus. That word "simply" is the stinger. Surely the solution to this world's ills has to be at the very least complicated. There are so many complicated situations out there. Even my life gets too complicated at times. Surely the answer has to be complicated too.

Or does it? Maybe not. Maybe we have become too clever and sophisticated for our own good. Maybe the real problem is simply us, and our attitude to each other. If this is true the answer may indeed be very simple. Maybe we need to lay aside all our cleverness and just look to the very simplicity of Jesus teaching. It's been there in front of our noses for circa 2000 years, and we have rejected it just because it is too simple for us.

When I started this article it was nearly time to go the march. I am now concluding this article nearly two weeks after the event, and it's a beautiful sunny day. The brollies are neatly filed away, and the gardens are teaming with the new life of Spring.

What about you and your life? Are you feeling weighed down by the pressures of life? Do you feel as if your very existence lacks any sort of meaning or purpose? Life is treading water or fighting fires. Maybe what this Jesus did has meaning for you. Maybe the answers you need for your life are not as complicated as you think they should be. Wouldn't it be nice if just for once, the answers to your problems were actually simple?

Like I said earlier, I am nowhere near perfect in any way shape or form, but I do believe that those brolly-equipped Easter Friday marchers, actually do have a solution that could well be the solution that you need too.

Maybe there is something good about Good Friday after all. At the very least I would recommend everyone to check it out. What have you got to lose? It seems that most people are quite happy to accept the grave/crematorium as the end. I for one like the idea of a better life after death. If it's there I want it. What about you?

Please feel free to contact me to discuss. I am sure that there are loads of different opinions, and this is too important to ignore.

The cross is empty. I wonder what that means?

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