It has always struck me as odd that we celebrate today as "Good" Friday, at least given our present understanding of the word good. If we accept an archaic understanding of good as holy, then I get it. But when is the last time you heard someone talking about Good Friday in this way? Too often we hear that Good Friday is good because Friday is the day Jesus died for our sins and therefore is the culmination of all God was working towards, the high point of God's reconciliation to us. But is that really what Friday is about? Is it our obsession with violence that makes us focus on this day?
Not that Friday isn't a part of the story. As one of my professors in seminary reminded us, we have to think about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus as if it is all one word - lifedeathandresurrection. The different aspects of the Jesus story only work in conjunction with others. The death by itself does not accomplish anything. After all, governments execute extremists, nonconformists, and others that do not fit their expected "norms" all the time.
But paired with Jesus' teachings and miracles - his focus on community and love - and his resurrection, his execution takes on a different meaning.
Hated by the religious leaders because he challenged their assumptions and taught a different way of loving God, Jesus was executed by the state for disrupting the status quo and leading the city to potential violence, even though it was the potential of violence among those that opposed Jesus that was the problem. It was an execution of expedience, as most state violence is.
As I read the Passion narrative this past week, I got caught up on the fact that even though Pilate washed his hands of the whole thing, it was his soldiers that led Jesus away. It was agents of the government that beat and mocked Jesus. It was these same troops that dressed Jesus in other garments and openly mocked his beliefs. I imagine if they had had cell phones and cameras, they would have snapped pics of themselves beating him and mocking him, pics of him dressed in a loose robe with a reed styled as a scepter and a crown of thorns forced on his head.
We like to style ourselves as followers of Christ, the Prince of Peace, one who taught us to love God and to love each other above all else. We're better than those others over there. They are violent and bloodthirsty. Not like us.
And yet, I know exactly how we would treat a Middle Eastern man that challenges our assumptions about how God should be worshiped.
As we celebrate Good Friday, let us never forget that Jesus died because of our sins. He also taught us a way to live in community with one another and rose from the dead to prove God's forgiveness and undying love for us.