“Of Birth and Death”
Yesterday was my birthday, and I had a wonderful celebration, thanks to my wife and many of my friends. It was also the day when Christians “celebrate” Christ’s death on the cross. There is a reason why I put “celebrate” in double quotation marks. Is death ever a reason to celebrate?
Certainly, Roman crosses were not originally designed for celebration—or for being turned into jewelry. Roman crosses were designed to inflict maximum pain over an agonizingly long period of time. Death was by suffocation, once you were too weak to push yourself up to breathe. It was a kind of pre-meditated, very targeted covid-19 that was intentionally transmitted to someone.
Imagine yourself saying to any of Jesus’ original disciples on the Friday that Jesus was crucified, “Hey, guys! I’ve got a wonderful idea! Why don’t we call this ‘Good Friday’!” At best, they would have looked at you with total bewilderment. At worst, you might have gotten a broken jaw. In any case, I doubt that there would have been a single vote in favor of your proposal.
And yet, those of us who follow Christ, do call it Good Friday. Why? Let me suggest two reasons.
First, Jesus’ death by crucifixion was not the closing chapter of his story. Generally speaking, the last chapter of a book—or the final main section of a Wikipedia article—speaks of the death of historical characters. The four Gospels of the Old Testament all indicate that Jesus’ family and friends were certain that Jesus was gone.
However, in the case of Jesus, the story goes that he did not stay dead. (Yes, I know! That’s pretty difficult to swallow. There are, however, many of us who actually believe it.) In light of the fact that Jesus didn’t stay put in the tomb, in retrospect, his crucifixion day came to be known as “Good Friday.”
But there is a second reason why Good Friday was good. The Gospels, the book of Acts, almost all of the letters, and the book of Revelation all indicate that Jesus’ death wasn’t primarily a tragedy or a miscarriage of justice. Rather, Jesus’ death was redemptive. He died in our place, for our wrong-doings.
If that is true, that is incredibly good. It was way beyond incredibly good; it was the best!
And since I believe that Jesus died for my sins—and for all our sins—and since I believe that he was raised from the dead, I don’t mind having my birthday coincide with Good Friday every once in a while. In point of fact, my birthday was so much nicer knowing that my sins are forgiven, and that isn’t the final word.
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