I can not mourn

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Today is Good Friday, the day that Christians around the world remember the crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ. It is supposed to be a somber day when we dwell on his suffering, his death, and his separation from God. I always find it difficult to be somber and mournful on Good Friday. His disciples were no doubt in shock and abject misery over his death but from this side of history I know how the story ends. I know that death could not hold the Son of God. I know that he rose from the dead not long after his burial. I know that he ascended into heaven. I know that he sits at the right hand of God intervening on my behalf. I know that because he defeated death it holds no sting for me.

So on Good Friday I simply wait. I enjoy the new life that Jesus' sacrifice bought me and I prepare for the celebration to come.

Comments

  1. PaulApril 07, 2007 9:49 PM

    I can mourn. Mortality is hard, often very hard, and Christianity traditionally teaches that Jesus was fully man and fully God.

    Believing in the resurrection doesn't protect Christians from the experience of mortality. I saw one of my favorite aunts, very devout, die a terrible death from a very aggressive breast cancer that runs in her family. She really and truly suffered despite her faith. I myself am in my twelfth year of a progressive illness and semi bedridden. And there are even important lessons that can be learned, difficult as it can be to contemplate suffering and mortality.

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  2. SamApril 07, 2007 11:10 PM

    I think you may have misunderstood what I was trying to convey. Jesus suffered and died on the cross, surely a dark and devastating thing not unlike what we regular humans sometimes suffer. I think you, having had the experience of watching your loved one die, would have a good understanding of what Jesus' followers went through as they watched him die. But from this side of history we know the out come of his suffering and his death. He rose from the dead bringing us the hope of eternal life. (Of course this is only meaningful to you if you accept that Jesus Christ is all that he said he is.)

    Christians most certainly experience mortality but we have (or should have) a very different perspective on that experience. I can't find it in myself to mourn on Good Friday because I can see clearly the light of the resurrection shining in the darkness.

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