Good News … Bad News (Meditation)

Rev. Ben Aldridge. Trowel & Sword. March 1991

Preamble: When growing up I was as confused about Easter, and particularly Good Friday, as the older member of Ben’s congregation mentioned below. I think I can confidently say that we weren’t the only ones confused. It comes under the heading of: ‘Questions we don’t know the answer to but are afraid to ask’. One could also ask: What does Easter have to do with chocolate eggs and rabbits? And why has it been turned into a public holiday for all; not just Christians? (Although as kids, we didn’t mind that at all). In this meditation Ben addresses some of these Questions and reminds us why we, as Christians, remember and celebrate that period between “Good Friday” and “Easter Sunday”.

Good News … Bad News (Meditation)

Last year at Easter one of our older members wanted to know why we called the Friday of Easter ‘Good Friday’? As far as he was concerned it was not a ‘good’ day at all. On this day we remember that one of the most heinous crimes ever committed, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, the Son of God took place in Jerusalem in A.D. 30. I was moved by this to look up the origin of the term ‘Good Friday’ and to ask whether it indeed was a ‘good’ day?

I discovered that no one seems to be sure where the term comes from. In some places it is also known as ‘long day’, ‘Day of Preparation’, ‘Day of the Lord’s Passion’ and the “Passion of the Cross’. It is called ‘good’ because of the benefits that flow from what the day commemorates, that is, the death of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In much of the early church it was not celebrated as a special day and it came to be observed as a result of the development of the calendar in the fourth century.

While in most countries colonised by European nations it is celebrated as a public holiday, in some, like the United States of America, it is not. In fact, most Protestant churches in the U.S.A. do not hold services on Good Friday. This contrasts with a country like Indonesia, which is 90% Muslim, but does have a public holiday on Good Friday.

So is it a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ day? The apostle Paul answers the question, though surely without intending to, in I Corinthians 1:23-24:  . . . but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power and the wisdom of God.’

The message of Easter contains both good news and bad news. It is bad news for those who refuse to humble themselves, repent and turn from their rebellion against God. This is true whether they are rulers, like Robert Hawke or Saddam Hussein, rich business people, professors or academics, secretaries or bricklayers. God is no respecter of persons. If we live without Christ crucified, we will die without Him and death will be eternal. But those whom God has called, and that could yet be Saddam Hussein and Robert Hawke (God alone knows and we should pray for their salvation), Easter Friday, while it is a day on which we mourn our greatest crime, is also a day that leads on to Easter Sunday. And make no mistake, the crucifixion of Christ was our greatest crime. The horrors of the Second World War with the slaughter of 300,000 Gypsies, tens of thousands of allied troops, 6,000,000 Jews and 20,000,000 people of the U.S.S.R., terrible though these were, cannot be compared to it. All creation was so horrified by why we dared to do that there was darkness across the face of the earth for three hours. We must never forget that Easter has two parts. Friday leads on to Sunday. The crucifixion is followed by the resurrection. The work of Christ on the cross is accepted by God as sufficient for our salvation and God declares that He is satisfied by raising Christ from the dead, and seated Him at His right hand where sure where He ‘reigns until He has put all His enemies under His feet.’

We will continue to hear lots of ‘bad’ news this year. In fact the only news that seems to sell is ‘bad’ news. But for the Christian, even in the darkest hour of personal or global tragedy, there is always the Good News of the glorious resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Good News that God is in control. The Good News that nothing, absolutely nothing can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. And the Good News that Christ reigns and He will return to claim his inheritance and put a final end to sin and death and sickness and sorrow and the devil himself. This is truly the Good News of Easter.

Ben Aldridge

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