Good Friday? A PR Disaster, Until Sunday Fixed It!
If I weren’t a Christian, I’d at least be curious.
I mean, how do you explain a religion that describes the Friday on which their God died as “Good Friday”?
How is it good?
“Deeply Unfortunate Friday” would be closer to the mark.
“Catastrophic Miscalculation Friday” has a certain ring to it.
“End of Days Friday” is… probably a little dramatic… but still… it makes more sense than “GOOD Friday”.
What’s So Good About Good Friday?
But then, Christianity has always struck me as being a little bit strange.
Not “strange” as in bizarre. Strange as in… unexpectedly compelling. The kind of strange that makes you lean in rather than back away.
That Jesus was a historical figure is not seriously contested. There’s more evidence for the existence of Jesus than there is for Plato or Socrates or a Liberal Party immigration policy.
That Jesus died on the cross is also not controversial. The Romans were many things, but vague record-keepers wasn’t one of them.
The Most Audacious Claim in History
But Christianity doesn’t stop at “good man, tragic end”.
It makes the rather audacious claim that this was God himself — stepping into human history, living the life we should have lived, and dying the death we all deserved.
Which is either the most profound truth ever told… or the most outrageous claim ever made.
If it’s true, it’s both humbling and encouraging.
It’s humbling to hear that, apparently, I’m not fixable with a few minor adjustments and a better morning routine.
It’s encouraging because if God was willing to die on my behalf… then perhaps I’m not quite as disposable as I sometimes suspect.
Did He Actually Rise?
But is it true?
Well, that’s where Easter Sunday comes in. Speaking of Easter Sunday, don’t miss The Macpherson Angle at 8 p.m.
But back to the Saviour of the world.
If, as The Washington Post once said, Good Friday was the premature end to a gentle Jew’s promising teaching career… then Christianity collapses like a poorly built Ikea shelf.
Nice ideas. Inspiring slogans. Ultimately irrelevant.
But if Jesus DID rise from the dead… that changes everything. And I mean everything.
It means there is a God.
It means there is a God who is interested in us.
And it means there is life eternal beyond the dark horizon that confronts each of us personally at one stage or other, and all of us collectively at moments when Labor is in power.
So did Jesus rise from the dead? Or did he not?
And what’s fascinating about Christianity is that it invites the question.
It doesn’t ask you to vaguely feel your way toward truth — it plants a flag in history and says, “Check that.”
Why It Changes Everything
I’m convinced that, on the balance of evidence, there’s enough to suggest that he did rise from the dead.
Which means no matter who you are, where you’ve been or what you’ve done… there’s hope.
The alternative doesn’t bear thinking about.
As C.S. Lewis once said, even if you don’t believe Christianity to be true, it’s the sort of religion that you should wish was true.
If Easter is true, then what looks like the end might just be the beginning of something better than whatever you lost.
So happy Easter. And hang in there.
___
Republished with thanks to The James Macpherson Report. Image courtesy of Adobe.
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Did someone in Canberra Declaration fail to read this post accurately?
James Macpherson has clearly written the following statements in this extended version:
“Well, that’s where Easter Sunday comes in. Speaking of Easter Sunday, don’t miss The Macpherson Angle at 8 p.m.
But back to the other Saviour of the world.”
1 John 4:14-15 NKJV
And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Saviour of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of GOD, GOD abides in him, and he in GOD.
Proverbs 16:4-6 TLB
The LORD has made everything for his own purposes – even the wicked for punishment.
Pride disgusts the LORD.
Take My WORD for it – proud men shall be punished.
Iniquity is atoned for by mercy and truth; evil is avoided by reverence for GOD.
2 Peter 2:20-22 NIV
If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our LORD and Saviour Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud.”
Thanks for the comment, Kate. That sentence has been edited as it’s quite unclear and creates the confusion you have raised.
Many Muslims report Jesus appearing in visions or in their dreams. Thank You, God for giving us the gifts of Faith and Hope.