It’s Good Friday,
today. It’s the beginning of the Easter weekend. I know what it means to me,
but sometimes I wonder what it means to other people.
Growing up, it did not
mean very much to me. It was a day off school and the beginning of a long weekend.
Easter meant chocolate eggs. There was no thought about the significance of
Easter. Even now, Easter isn’t Easter without chocolate.
One of my memories of
Good Friday as a teenager was spending it at the home of friends of mine. My
sister was also there. It just so happened that the friends were daughters of
an Anglican minister who ministered to our parish. Their mother had a tradition
of making hot cross buns every Good Friday and feeding them to whomever came to
spend time with them on that day. Her buns were fabulous and I have absolutely
no idea how many I ate that day.
Another Good Friday
memory that I have from when I was much younger, is of my mother cooking fish.
Fish was not very common in our house at that time. In fact, it was very rare.
I have no idea why. I had asked my mother why she was cooking fish and she told
me that it was because that it was Good Friday. I still did not understand why.
She tried to explain it to me but I think that I might have been too young to
understand.
As I grew older, I
learned about what Good Friday was supposed to be about, according to the Anglican
Church. At that time, however, it was a day off school, maybe go to church for
an hour and then do whatever I want.
Over the years, I have
learned the true meaning of Good Friday. It is not a government holiday but it
is a religious holy day. It is meant to bring people together to think about
and discuss the death of Jesus Christ and the Atonement that He performed for
us. A great many people think that the Atonement was performed on the cross.
The Atonement as
explained by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints states:
“As
used in the scriptures, to atone is to suffer the penalty for sins, thereby
removing the effects of sin from the repentant sinner and allowing him or her
to be reconciled to God. Jesus Christ was the only one capable of carrying out
the Atonement for all mankind. Because of His Atonement, all people will be
resurrected, and those who obey His gospel will receive the gift of eternal
life with God.”
As
I said earlier, many people believe that the Atonement was performed on the
cross. I don’t believe that it was done there, but instead, I believe that the
time that Christ spent in the Garden of Gethsemane, He worked out the
Atonement. As it reads in the New Testament:
“ 39 ¶And he came out, and went, as he was wont, to the Mount of Olives; and his disciples also followed him.
cast, kneeled down, and prayed,
from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.
strengthening him.
and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.”
Luke 22: 39 – 44
Here,
it says, right in the New Testament, that Christ sweat great drops of blood.
Why would this happen unless He was taking the sins of all of the people of the
world, past, present, and future, and paying the price for them so that if they
would only believe in Him and follow His laws, then they would be able to
return to our God and live with God and Jesus Christ throughout the eternities.
Let
it suffice that we can read these things in the scriptures.
Some
of you may not believe the way that I do. That’s alright. It is not my place to
tell you that you are wrong in your beliefs. My object in this is to present a
slightly different slant than you think and ask that you think about it. I hope
that you observed Good Friday in the manner that you feel comfortable with.
Nicely written.
ReplyDeleteThank you.
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