Good Friday?

A PR disaster ... until Sunday fixed it

If I wasn’t a Christian, I’d at least be curious.

I mean, how you do explain a religion that describes the Friday on which their God died as “Good Friday”?

How is it good?

“Deeply Unfortunate Friday” would be closer to the mark.

“Catastrophic Miscalculation Friday” has a certain ring to it.

“End of Days Friday” is … probably a little dramatic … but still … it makes more sense than “GOOD Friday”.

But then, Christianity has always struck me as being a little bit strange.

Not “strange” as in bizarre. Strange as in… unexpectedly compelling. The kind of strange that makes you lean in rather than back away.

That Jesus was a historical figure is not seriously contested. There’s more evidence for the existence of Jesus than there is for Plato or Socrates or a Liberal Party Immigration Policy.

That Jesus died on the cross is also not controversial. The Romans were many things, but vague record-keepers wasn’t one of them.

But Christianity doesn’t stop at “good man, tragic end”.

It makes the rather audacious claim that this was God Himself - stepping into human history, living the life we should have lived, and dying the death we all deserved.

Which is either the most profound truth ever told … or the most outrageous claim ever made.

If it’s true, it’s both humbling and encouraging.

It’s humbling to hear that, apparently, I’m not fixable with a few minor adjustments and a better morning routine.

It’s encouraging because if God was willing to die on my behalf … then perhaps I’m not quite as disposable as I sometimes suspect.

But is it true?

Well, that’s where Easter Sunday comes in. Speaking of Easter Sunday, don’t miss The Macpherson Angle at 8pm.

But back to the other Saviour of the world.

If, as the Washington Post once said, Good Friday was the premature end to a gentle Jew’s promising teaching career … then Christianity collapses like a poorly built Ikea shelf.

Nice ideas. Inspiring slogans. Ultimately irrelevant.

But if Jesus DID rise from the dead … that changes everything. And I mean everything.

It means there is a God.

It means there is a God who is interested in us.

And it means there is life eternal beyond the dark horizon that confronts each of us personally at one stage or other and all of us collectively at moments when Labor is in power.

So did Jesus rise from the dead? Or did he not?

And what’s fascinating about Christianity is that it invites the question.

It doesn’t ask you to vaguely feel your way toward truth - it plants a flag in history and says, “Check that.”

I’m convinced that, on the balance of evidence, there’s enough to suggest that He did rise from the dead.

Which means no matter who you are, where you’ve been or what you’ve done … there’s hope.

The alternative doesn’t bear thinking about.

As CS Lewis once said … even if you don’t believe Christianity to be true, it’s the sort of religion that you should wish was true.

If Easter is true, then what looks like the end might just be the beginning of something better than whatever you lost.

So happy Easter. And hang in there.