Good Friday

Ahh yes, another Good Friday has come upon us.

Being as how I know what “Good Friday” is supposed to commemorate, I find it rather odd that the day has been given the name that it has. I’m sure for the Pharisees and Sadducees of the day, 2000 and some odd years ago, it probably WAS a Friday worth celebrating. The thorn that had been in their side for around three years was finally being dealt with, and they could get their aggression out.

But the day wasn’t named by the Pharisees or the Sadducees. This day was named by Christians.

Isn’t that a bit odd? The very people who are supposed to love Christ more than anything, even their own lives, call the day that he was tortured and crucified “Good Friday.” These same people remember and observe the day with the same pious obligation that they observe Christmas or any other church holiday.

I’ve heard Christians say that they aren’t really “celebrating” the acts of the day as much as they are celebrating the end result (which they say is eternal life for all believers). But that seems a bit selfish to me.

Why should people who are guilty of the worst of all crimes possible, those being crimes committed against a holy God, be even remotely happy because they are now supposedly forgiven of those sins and not be selfish in doing so? Do they even have the slightest inkling of what crucifixion entailed? Do they really, honestly, love God (and his Son) as much as they say they do?

In a way I think celebrating Easter falls along the same lines. If there was someone I loved who was tortured and murdered because of wrongs I had done, even if they DID rise from the dead later and I ended up being let off the hook, there’s no way in hell I’d be joyous about it. Instead, I’d most likely feel like total crap and I would be totally torn up over what my loved one went through because of my stupidity. And I would also live the rest of my life in their debt.

People are able to “celebrate” Easter, and Good Friday, because they don’t love Jesus like they do.

Am I being a bit presumptuous? I don’t think so.

Christians (and those who profess to be Christians, and even people who think they are Christians because they go to church on Christmas and Easter) celebrate Easter because they are more concerned about what they were given out of the deal than what it cost God. They are able to celebrate because they can focus on their getting eternal life and being pardoned for their crimes. They are able to ignore, or trivialize, what it cost God’s Son (who they say they love) and are able to smile, sing a few hymns about Christ rising from the dead and defeating death, and go home to a Sunday brunch.

This is what the American Church has reduced Christ’s sacrifice to.

You know, I still don’t believe any of the stuff about God and all that, but as has happened before I’m once again feeling sorry for God. Honestly. If he’s really up there and is really who the Bible says, I truly feel sorry for him.

And you know another reason I know Christians are more focused on the fact that they think they have eternal life than anything else? By their actions.

To go back to the example I gave before, and to expound a bit on what I said about being in debt to the person for the rest of my life, I would live my whole life trying to do whatever I could for that person. Maybe out of guilt, but also out of gratitude. Yet Christians trivialize sin. They are taught that they just need to ask God to forgive them, time and time again. They blame their sin on their humanity. They try to find ways of making “little” sins seem ok, because they aren’t “that bad.”

I really wonder how many “Christians” have taken a good look at Hebrews 10:26-29. Sorry, but just to make my point, I’m gonna write what it says (maybe I can convert some of you little, heathen diary readers, hehe).

“26 For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,

27 But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.

28 He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses;

29 Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, with which he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of Grace?”

Ok, so now that I probably lost you all, let me paraphrase. It says fairly plainly that if people sin after receiving the “knowledge of the truth” that there is no more sacrifice left for sins. Why? Because they do what Hebrew 6:6 talks about, they crucify the Son of God afresh. They trample on the very blood that saved them, and try to make it “ok” by asking God to forgive them again. They try to make amends for walking on his sacrifice by saying “I’m still an imperfect human.”

Church people don’t want to hear about that though. They don’t like the thought of having to live holy because, face it, most sin is fun (at least for a while). So people convince themselves that they are cool with God. They convince each other that they can keep “messing up” and keep asking for forgiveness and that God will keep dishing out forgiveness like ice cream at a preschool party. And they convince themselves that it’s actually possible to sin “on accident.”

Anyhow, why did I write all this? I don’t know. Guess it’s one more reason why I see nothing real in “God” and most definitely not in any church. Hell, Christ’s “followers” can’t even follow him, what’s the point of trying?

Happy Good Friday

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“Today is a good day to die.”

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Kiefer Sutherland, Flatliners