Other "Thinking Drafts" and writing by Keith Drury -- http://www.indwes.edu/tuesday .

It's Friiiiiiiiiiday

Like many Protestants, Good Friday has never been a big deal for me. As a kid, all my Catholic friends, and some Lutheran ones, made a big affair out of it. My church didn't.

Easter Sunday was our special day. Maybe because we already attended church on Sunday, so it was easier. Good Friday required something extra. But they told me it was theological too. I was taught that the resurrection was the validating event for Good Friday - 'If Christ be not raised, then your faith is in vain.' It was as if, 'the more you believe in Easter, the less you'll believe in Good Friday.' They said, 'The Catholics never get Jesus off the cross, we believe in a resurrected Christ.' Or, 'We're an Easter church, not a Good Friday church' (they, of course, were wrong about that, because, if my denomination had to pick a day, we'd have been a "Pentecost" church, if anything.)

But I still wonder why many Protestants make so little over Good Friday. We vote with Tony.. it's Friiiiiiiiiiiday! And every thing is dark and looks like it will be lost. Let's get it over with!

However, I wonder if there's another factor. Easter is easier to 'sell' to people so desperate for uplifting thoughts. Easter is bright, sunny, exciting and full of hope. It is about joy, excitement, discovery, and new life. That sells today. Friday is about pain, agony, blood and death. No wonder many of us don't made a big deal about Good Friday.

However, the focus of Christian theology is not just on an unoccupied Sunday morning tomb, but also on an occupied Friday cross. I feel the need for more 'Good Friday' in my life, even though it is not a pick-me-up day. I've paid a price for downplaying good Friday.

That's what the cross is about. On Friday I am reminded that I am a sinner, that I've broken God's law. I am guilty... stained.. convicted. I've been "bad." Frankly, I'd rather be told how great I am, how wonderful humanity is, what great potential I have. These things encourage me, build me up. I feel better hearing about self esteem than self sacrifice. It's hard to do that on Friiiiiiiiiiday.

Because of my sin I am guilty of death... "the wages of sin is death." On Friday I see the wrath of God. Not a twisted vindictiveness, or unloving rage, but a certain justice for sin. In God there is nothing irreconcilable between wrath and love. Such problems occur only in my limited thinking. God is just and therefore will punish sin. He is not a doting grandfatherly Mister-Rogers-in-the-sky overlooking sin and reassuring us that we are fine just the way we are. He is loving, caring and gentle, yet at the same time angry, wrathful, jealous, and a sure punisher of sin. Friday reminds me of my just deserts: hell. I don't like to talk about hell, especially in relation to me. Mentioning hell from the pulpit seems impolite, indelicate, unrefined. I much prefer a God something like.. well, uh... maybe like Phil Donahue - understanding, helpful, kind, and very broad-minded, especially when it comes to me personally. People don't like to think about hell. They prefer to think about dying and moving serenely through a dark tunnel at the end of which they meet a bright accepting warm light They see eternity as sort of like going to Florida. I'd rather hear about nicer things than judgment. It's hard to do that on Friiiiiiiiiiday.

If I am a sinner deserving judgment, even hell, how shall I escape? Through the blood of Christ. On Good Friday I am reminded that we are "saved by the blood of the Lamb." It seems so crude to the modern mind - saved by 'blood'. We wonder, how will the animal rights activists respond? The cross is an offense to good taste. Blood. From His head, His hands, His feet. And side. Blood spilled for me. Not a pretty picture. But it is a picture of the Gospel, as Saint Paul saw it. Most others for 2000 years too. Good Friday is a 'bloody sort of day.' Taking a day to focus on a bloody, torn, corpse hanging on a cross, on some distant hill in the past is not pleasant work. Not as fun as dressing up and taking a pretty lily home from church. But the blood is what you get on Friiiiiiiiiiday.

But this Friday, I'll halt my normal activities and think about these things just the same. I think it will be good for me. Especially about the blood of Christ.

I'll be happy that my sins are 'covered by the blood.'
I'll be rejoicing that, like the children of Israel, I will escape for,
'When I see the blood, I will pass over you.'
I'll thank God this Friday that,
'there is a fountain filled with blood,
drawn from Emanuel's veins.
And sinners plunge beneath that flood,
lose all their guilty stains.'

After all, the real question about my own sin is,
'What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.'

And I might even turn dark gloomy Good Friday into a time of praise.
'When I saw the cleansing fountain, open wide for all my sin.
I obeyed the Spirit's wooing when He said, Wilt thou be clean?
I will praise Him. I will praise him.
Praise the lamb for sinners slain.
Give Him glory, all ye people
for His blood can wash away each stain.'

I'll be thinking mostly of the old songs I learned as a kid,
when a person's theology is molded without your knowing it. Like,
'Down at the cross where my savior died.
Down where for cleansing from sin I cried.
There to my heart was the blood applied.
Glory to His name!

So, this Friday I'll be thinking about sin ,and judgment, and especially the blood of Christ. It is a day more suited for the Lord's supper, than yard work or in-line skating. To me, I am coming to believe that observing Easter without Good Friday teaches a half-truth.

Maybe if I observe Good Friday right, Easter will mean more than bunnies, Easter baskets and a new set of clothes.

So what do you think?

To contribute to the thinking on this issue e-mail your response to Tuesday@indwes.edu