Chaplain's Corner

Good Friday. What was so good about a man getting betrayed by one of his closest friends? What was so good about a man being falsely accused? What was so good about the travesty of human justice that occurred that day? What was so good about being abandoned by almost every friend you ever had? What was so good about a cowardly ruler who would have rather given into the mob than stand up for what was right? What was so good about men and women lining the streets jeering? What was so good about soldiers not only executing an innocent man but mocking him as they did? What was so good about Good Friday?

For many, there is nothing good about it, for many who have not embraced the Christian faith – well, they just don’t get Good Friday at all. Maybe what many people think is so good about Good Friday is that they get a day off work, even though they may have never even considered why they get the day off. But then I guess that’s not a lot different than my enjoying a day off on Louis Riel Day. Frankly, I enjoy the day off, but Louis Riel is nothing to me. No offence intended to our French and Métis Manitoban’s, but being an American immigrant, I can identify more with the American President’s Day (celebrated the same day) than with Louis Riel Day. Why should it be important to me? Why should Good Friday be important to people who are not Christians? Why is it that  Good Friday is insignificant to many, many people who identify themselves as Christian when the Census is taken?

It’s really quite simple. If a person does not know Jesus, why should his death matter? There have been many significant people die whose deaths we do not commemorate. I officiate at many funerals, 15 to 20 a year. Most people who die, who have a funeral, are remembered by somebody; for some there are big crowds and for others just a few people. But the whole world doesn’t stop and commemorate the death of everyone who dies so what makes Jesus so special that we should have a day in which everyone, except essential workers get the day off, even though the vast majority who get the day off care little or nothing about the person the day is set aside to remember.

Well, as a man who has known Jesus personally for 48 years, as a man who has spent 7 years studying to serve this Jesus, as a man who has devoted his 35 year career to encouraging others to get to know this Jesus, please allow me to share why I celebrate this event.

First I celebrate Good Friday, the death of Jesus; because I believe he died for my sins. You see, I am a sinner. We still use the word from time to time in our culture. We refer to Las Vegas as “Sin City” because we all know that many people go there and do things they would never do at home, never do in their own community, things that are considered wrong out side Las Vegas because there is this myth that what one does there stays there.

I actually believe that I am a sinner, to the core of my being. I believe that apart from the saving grace of Jesus, everything I do, no matter how noble or how well intended falls short of God’s standards. We all live with standards. In health care for instance there are standards for everything. Just this week at Bethesda Place examiners from Manitoba Health visited the facility to determine whether or not we were operating according to the Long Term Care Standards of Manitoba Health. Some of the standards are pass/fail. No matter how well we may strive towards the standard – if we don’t meet it completely – the facility fails on that standard. This is a picture of how things are with God. God has a standard for human beings – it is perfection. Of course, not a one of us can achieve that standard: Not the Pope, not Mother Teresa, not the EMC Pastor who served well for 60 years, not the devote Baptist lady who never missed a service at her church, not the selfless missionary couple that spent their
entire lives in a frontier community bringing hope to a tribal group, not a single one of us can achieve that standard. That is the simple reason why the Bible tells us “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  But, if you don’t believe that the Bible is God’s Word, and you don’t believe that every word in the Bible is true, I guess what the Bible says means little or nothing to you. I understand. If you don’t buy the assumption that you are a sinner, then of course Good Friday would be a meaningless holiday to you – so enjoy the day off, catch up on some chores or take a drive to the States.

The second reason I celebrate Good Friday is because it commemorates one of the few events in human history that gives me hope. Why would the crucifixion of Jesus 2000 years ago give me hope? Well, once again I want to admit right up front that I believe what the Bible says from cover to cover. Think me a fool if you wish, but I have committed myself to this belief my entire life and have decided to stake my earthly and eternal well-being on what the Bible says. Why then would the crucifixion of this man 2000 years ago give me hope? Because I believe that Jesus was more than just a man. I believe that he was perfectly and completely God come in the flesh. I believe his mission was singular; in His words, I “have come to seek and to save the lost.” Or as he said in another conversation, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son (Jesus) that whosoever beleiveth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

Jesus came to die for my sins (yours as well), to take my punishment, to stand between the holy Father and me and absorb the full condemnation that I deserve as a sinner and the punishment that must accompany it and in so doing has satisfied justice on my behalf making it possible for me to receive the full measure of the Father’s love, mercy and grace. God’s love that welcomes me into His family, His mercy does not give me what my sins deserve and His grace extends to me more benefits that I can possibly imagine. That is why I have hope in this disappointing world. That is why my own sinfulness, my own failure to achieve God’s standards doesn’t bury me in self-condemnation, and despair. That is why I can confront the repercussions of sin every day: the brokenness of our souls, bodies, relationships, societies and cultures every day without being overwhelmed and disillusioned.

In that death, on that cross, that man – Jesus – did all that was necessary to save us from our sins. When anyone of us turns from our self-reliance and pride (repent) and trusts in Jesus completely for forgiveness from sin and life everlasting; that crucifixion, that bloody, gruesome death satisfies God’s holiness and righteousness and sets the Father free to forgive us and adopt us into his family.

Good Friday, for me it is more than just the beginning of a four day weekend, it is the celebration that reminds me of the price the Father was willing to pay in order to reclaim me from my sins and the separation they created between God and myself. It is a celebration of God’s love and the redeeming grace that if received, changes everything!