Sacrifice

 Well, these posts are obviously pretty late. But I wanted to do them consecutively without a random assigned post or whatever mixed in (and without having to go way over the word requirement).

So, Good Friday has come and gone another year. For a lot of people, it's just an excuse to get off work or school early. But for Christians, it is one of the most important holidays of the year. Sadly, many people do not realize its importance. Many even expressed annoyance regarding the holiday. Even when people came from a Christian family, I would still hear them complaining about having to go or giving a blatant refusal to accompany their families. It really brought me down a little to hear that, so I decided I would take a week to write about the importance and meaning of Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

Good Friday is not simply an excuse for your parents or family to drag you into church late at night. It is in remembrance of one of the most central events of the Bible, the death of Christ. Good Friday centers entirely on the death of the cross. It is there to remind us of the sacrifice of Jesus. It is meant not only as a day of remembrance, but of mourning and contemplation. It is not a happy fun holiday. The songs are not ones of joy or ones of cheerfulness. There are no happy decorations or feasts. The songs are normally ones of sorrow or a more serious nature, and the day itself was traditionally one of fasting. The service is often solemn and certainly more serious than most. Here the pastor is less apt to make a wisecrack or break the serious tone. The darker mood is meant to exist. It is meant to remain so that we may fully understand the nature of that day. The story of the crucifixion is often read from start to finish. There are no omissions. The suffering and pain of Christ is giving voice in order that we may remember what he went through. Every scorn, every wound, every moment cut away from His Father is recounted. It is meant to remind us of what he did, and why he did it. It is meant to remind us that he bore his torment willingly, suffered the fires of hell willingly, faced the utter loneliness of being forsaken by the Father willingly, for our sake and our sake alone. It is meant to recount to us the pain and suffering he endured for our sake. The focus throughout remains entirely upon what Christ did. It very rarely shifts to the congregation. It is a time to honor God, not ourselves. We are meant to contemplate the things he suffered, and why he suffered them. He endured for our sake, that we may be saved. We were not worthy. We were not deserving. But God loved us enough to literally endure the torments of Hell. This is a time to look to God with awe at the sheer magnitude of His sacrifice. This is a time for serious thought and realization of our debt to him, and how it was paid. Often times during the sermon, the church will slowly darken as symbolic candles are extinguished or certain passages have been reached. Eventually, the lights in the church will be completely off, and the sermon will end in darkness. You then leave. You do not speak to your friends. You do not make plans to go out for dinner. You leave in silence, thoughts turned above.

-BlackFox

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