It’s ‘Good’ Friday…so a song

So today is the day in Holy Week that remembers the crucifixion of Jesus, and it’s very name is the ultimate in irony: Good Friday.  That is, good in the ultimate outcome of the resurrection and new creation.  But at the time, for those devoted to Jesus, it was anything but.

In this somber day, we see the Messiah strung up and left to rot, for his breath to slowly dissipate from his body as people mock and animals pick and bite.  Two thousand years ago there was nothing romantic, nothing glorious or wonderful about crucifixion.  It was the ultimate penalty for the ultimate insurrection.  And when Jesus took it upon himself and was hoisted before all as an example of what happens to “enemies of the state,” in an ironic twist, he exposed the epitome of sin and the rebellion of creatures against their Creator.  Through the crucifixion the curtain was pulled back and the real substance of power, greed, lust, and corruption were revealed for what they were.  Mankind’s systems and structures were outed, and the very worst we could do – steal the very life from someone — was put on display.  Jesus stepped fully into it, into this “black parade” of human dysfunction and rebellion.

A mere three days after the crucifixion the entire spectacle would be reversed…but here, on this day, the future went dark for those who followed this nobody carpenter-turned-rabbi/prophet/Messiah from the podunk village of Nazareth. 

For this day, the musical stylings of My Chemical Romance seem appropriate: