Good Friday
A Meditation
By Bill Fisher
Copyright © 2011 by Bill Fisher. All rights reserved.


Today is Good Friday. Courthouses are closed in some places. Some government offices are closed. Some places of business are closed. Why? Here in the United States, a supposedly Christian nation, for those who are off work today, Good Friday has become just another day when they don’t have to go to work. Have we lost our bearings? Do we no longer revere the holy symbols of our faith?

Good Friday is the Friday before Easter Sunday. It is the day the Christian church remembers the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. Did you see the movie? Do you remember what Jesus endured on that day some 2,000 years ago? Does it matter?

If Good Friday is to be a day of remembrance, then certainly it should mean something, or else why have it on the calendar. This day comes at the end of what is called Holy Week, the week leading up to Easter Sunday. During Holy Week pastors of churches all over the world are busy conducting services leading up to the ultimate service on Easter Sunday. By the time they finish the Sunday services, they are typically exhausted. But what about their flocks? Are they exhausted from the weeks devotions? Or, are they simply exhausted from working all week and happy to have the day off on Friday, if they are among the lucky few who actually get to take the day off?

In 1957, according to the Gallup polling firm, 69% of Americans believed that religion was increasing in influence in the United States. That has changed! In Gallup’s December 9, 2010, poll report, 70% of Americans believe that religion is a declining influence in the US. Why the flip-flop? What has happened to cause the change?

Well, a lot has happened since 1957. We have gone through a cultural metamorphosis. We have moved away from the foundational truths that sustained us from the founding of the nation to a more “enlightened” way. Now, we are in a era where moral relativism rules the day. There is no longer any absolute right or wrong. All things are relative. We have morphed into a secular humanistic society in which God is no longer relevant or even welcomed to attend our institutions. We must keep God in our church buildings as much as possible, and, where possible, keep Him out of there, too.

Scripture tells us in Psalm 94:

4 They pour out arrogant words;
all the evildoers are full of boasting.
5 They crush your people, LORD;
they oppress your inheritance.
6 They slay the widow and the foreigner;
they murder the fatherless.
7 They say, “The LORD does not see;
the God of Jacob takes no notice.”

Our society today seems to believe that God is not paying attention, and if He is, He doesn’t care what we are doing. Therefore, God is not having the influence on our society that He once did. After all, God is the one who set out all those obsolete absolute rules and values for men to follow, and, of course, we 21st century geniuses have moved beyond all that. We know what is best for us. And beside that, things change, so we have to be changeable to keep up with the times. There is no place for an unchangeable God. We don’t need that any more. So they say!

So, on this Good Friday, while the world is going about its business as though nothing really happened that matters to them, Christians are following the traditions of their faith and honoring God by remembering the death of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He is the cornerstone the builders of our modern society have rejected while they build their monuments to themselves on the ever shifting sands of moral relativism.

The remnant of the faithful continue to provide the foundations for the world, even when the world pays no attention. The faithful, by the very act of their faithfulness, serve as a redeeming force to show the way for the rest of the world. Today, as the Christian church remembers Good Friday, the act of remembrance serves all mankind, be they atheists, Muslims, Buddhist, or any of the many other religions practiced by people trying to create their own gods. It is the Christian community that holds up the Light that lights the world, and the darkness cannot snuff it out. All Jesus did that day was take away the sin of the world. It is finished!!!

As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.