The Big If

Good Friday. The day when Christ was crucified. It isn't a big deal if he were only a scalawag or criminal. It really isn't even a big deal if He were simply a common man who was a bit delusional. He would be just another unfortunate soul who bad men put to death.

But what if He is what he says he is? What if He is the Son of God? What if He actually did come to Earth to save us? What if salvation, an eternity of happiness and bliss, really came from His act?

It's hard for me to argue that He wasn't exactly who He said he was. If He were a criminal, then what crimes did He commit, as Pilate asked. If He were insane, how can we trust anything He says, even the stuff about being good to one another? Such would only incidentally be true if He were crazy. 

What if he were simply lying about being the key to salvation? He certainly didn't back down even under threat of death, which is exactly what should be expected of a charlatan.

It leaves the question: what if He was indeed who He said he was? What if He could do what He promised He could?

The big If. I urge you on this Good Friday 2022 to ask yourself if and to answer honestly. Because if He is who He says He is, we have a lot to answer for. Thankfully, He has a lot of forgiveness to give out. 

Good Friday Comments

Today is perhaps the day of the greatest irony on our calendar. It is Good Friday, the day we Christians remember the crucifixion of out Lord Jesus Christ.

For years I wondered why it was called good. On the surface, the celebration (perhaps veneration is a better word) of someone's death, particularly a rather gruesome one, seems odd to say the least. Yet that is an interpretation based solely on earthly terms. When you consider that the great Divinity was involved, it casts an entirely different light on the situation.

God sent His only Son to be humiliated, to suffer and die horribly, for us. Such a great act cannot be seen except as fantastic. How could a sacrifice of that magnitude be seen in other than a positive light?

We cannot rightly see it any other way. Remember what Aquinas teaches: Christ is either lunatic, liar, or Lord. He Himself gives us no option but to answer the question in that frame. He claimed He could forgive others' sins: sins committed (on the surface) against other people by other people. That itself is effrontery or lunacy or even diabolical if He is not part of the Godhead. If He cannot actually do that, if He does not really have that power, then He lies or is insane. If He lies or is insane, then we cannot trust anything else He may say or teach or do. It's that simple.

Yet if we choose the example which faith recommends, if we see Him as Lord of all based on His actions in life and death as well as through the testimony of his trusted companions, then we see the need for praise and holy fear which His death illustrates to us. We understand what that death means: that the God of all humanity will not forsake humanity to her own selfish desires. He will give us an out, if you will, by living the greatest love of all: to give one's life for one's friends.

When the greatest One does that, what choice do we have but to call it Good?