21st April, 2000
It's Easter again. My worst memory of Good Friday is from when I was a teenager. I would go camping with my parents at a nearby town so that Dad could be near the Yacht Club where he sailed in the Easter Regatta each year. The rest of the weekend was fun, but Friday the streets seemed to be dead and my friends and I would roam aimlessly around, impatient for the town to come alive for the long weekend. (How do you like the Easter imagery there - I'd like to be able to say it was subtle but deliberate; alas, it was purely unintentional...) My earliest memory of Easter is of a Sunday School passion play, I think it must have been... I can remember the Sunday School hall was darkened and there was a procession of some sort, with candles, at one point in the proceedings - not the usual thing for our Methodist Church Sunday School. I have a distinct memory from that night. Sadly it proves beyond doubt that what was said in that play fell on deaf ears in my case. The thought I can remember having was, "Why do they get so happy about someone dying?" I didn't get it... Have you got it, yet? Do you know why people get so happy about a man dying? "It's Friday, but Sunday's coming...." As a teenager I would find little comfort in the sort of reasoning that says it might be bad now, but something good is coming up so cheer up. When I was bored out of my brain on Good Friday, so what if the rest of the weekend was coming. Today I am bored. As an adult with a chronic illness, I am slightly more mature in my outlook (!) and the knowledge that one day I will be better brings a bit of comfort to a bad day. I try to imagine what it would be like to die on a cross sometimes. It's not a happy thought. Death by any means is an unpleasant prospect... but add the cruel agony of crucifixion and my mind begins to overload. Somehow I can't picture myself saying, "This will all be worth it when it's over..." Hmmm, reminds me of childbirth, saying that. And guess what, it is worth it! Jesus knew that it is always right to trust God and endure the suffering of the day, with the hope of a better future: "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart." Hebrews 12:2 Could it be that the God who made us was right when he inspired the writing of the following words?
"For I reckon that
the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which
shall be revealed in us."
And this from a man who was beaten, shipwrecked, stoned and left for dead, and eventually beheaded... He also said this: "Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 So that is the secret to understanding why people get so happy about a man dying... He did it so that we could share in something with Him that is of higher value than anything previously imaginable. And nothing we endure this side of our 'entering into' it is worthy to be compared with it... Now that is good news.
I have hope in my heart... and hope you do,
too!
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