Good Friday and other religious stuff...

All right, this is a little belated, but I wanted to talk about Good Friday. Most people know what it is. In the Christian tradition, this is the day in the church year that we remember Christ's suffering and death on the cross. It's a dark day, and...oddly enough, it's my favorite.

Maybe favorite isn't the right word. It is the one religious day/holiday that affects me the most. We make a huge deal of Christmas and Easter, which are both big, important days, but without Good Friday, neither of them have much meaning. That always strikes me as something important. Without the worst day, the good days have less meaning. This is, I think, is true in real life and in stories. Sometimes, when you love a character, it's hard to make them suffer, but you know, that the experience can't be as real unless there's pain. I always think of the Matrix movie when I think of this. One of the agents tells Morpheus that they tried creating an artificial state of perfect happiness for the humans. But people kept waking up. So, maybe there is a point to the bad days too, I don't know. Not that we would ever wish bad days upon ourselves or anyone else for the sake of creating meaning.

To me, this is also the day that has made it that much easier for me to relate to Jesus, the person. In the Garden of Gethsemene (spelling?), he asked God to get him out of it, if possible, but if not, he would accept that fate as well. That's a person, a real person, facing pretty awful times ahead. This is not someone who goes blithely and cheerfully into death as one might expect. This is someone who knows what it means and doesn't want it, yet accepts it as something that must be done.

Same thing when he's been crucified and thinks that God has abandoned him. Yeah, I probably would too, in that situation.

To me, Good Friday is the day that reminds me of why I believe what I believe. It brings meaning to everything else in the church year. It gives more depth to my understanding of his death. Because this is not someone who shrugged and said, yeah, okay, I'll do this because I know I'll live again in three days. This is someone who thought about all that he would lose by doing this, the ultimate leap of faith, and did it anyway. How many of us could be that brave? Not me, I don't think, even on my good days.

***This message brought to you by a PK (pastor's kid), who has thought probably way too much about this kind of thing--I mean, who else has favorite religious holidays?!?***