A Not So Good Friday

The Irony of Good Friday

Today is Good Friday. Which is ironic, because if you were alive on the day Jesus was crucified two thousand years ago, it wasn’t a very good Friday. It’s easy for Christians today, to say, “Yeah, but we already knew Jesus was going to be resurrected that Sunday.” We only know that because we know how the story ends. But for the original followers of Jesus, they didn’t have the whole story. For them, the story ended when Jesus said, “It is finished” and then breathed his last breath. The Bible writers describe the moment after his death as a darkness that come over the land. Which is more symbolic than anything else. The point they were trying to make is that it was a time of mourning, sadness and helplessness. For everyone who had placed their hope in Jesus as the Messiah, their hopes were crushed. They had placed all their bets on Jesus and now the king was dead.

The Crucified King

Today we think about Jesus as the Crucified Savior. We wear him around our necks, we tattoo him on our skin, and hang crosses in our houses because we know that Sunday was just two days away. But for the people that experienced it, he was simply a false Messiah, crucified like all the others that had come before him.

Their hope of a king, whose kingdom was promised to them, the outcast, the refugee, the sinner, the crippled, the lame, the tax collectors, the prostitutes, and even the saints….had evaporated. To those what were deemed unworthy of society, who once had a voice in Jesus, their hopes were now silenced.

Because there is a finality that comes with death.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve stood in a hospital room, where a patient passes away, and their family members are yelling at them to wake up. I have seen mothers beating on their son’s chest pleading with them to open their eyes. It’s not that they don’t know they’re dead, it’s that their heart won’t allow them to accept the reality of life without them. Because the moment they come to terms with the death, they are forced to live in a different world. When you grieve the loss of someone you love, it’s not just the absence of that person that is so painful, but also the loss of all the experiences you were supposed to have with that person. It means no more Christmas’, no more birthdays, no more “I love yous”, no more “good mornings”, heck, no more Mondays.

Because there is a finality that comes with death.

Hopelessness

So, for the followers of Jesus in the first century his death meant going back to the world as it was before Jesus. It meant the outcast would continue to be the outcast. It meant hope of a better world was lost. It meant the kingdom Jesus talked about was no longer a breath away, but merely the silent echo of a whisper.

For them, the silence after Jesus’ death muted their hope, and led to doubt.