Friday, April 2 - UPDATED Monday, April 5

Happy Good Friday. My friend at work said to me today - "you probably know this - why is it called Good Friday? It wasn't particularly good at all." I didn't know the answer, and I apologized for letting him down, being the resident office Christian. We settled on the idea that its called Good Friday out of sarcasam. Like the Disciples said "Wow - what a good Friday this turned out to be...". You know what, let me do some research:

OK - so there are basically two schools of thought as to why it is called Good Friday.

1) The word "Good" used to carry the meaning of "Holy" along with it, so "Holy Friday"
2) The word "Good" and the word "God" are very similar and would often get mixed up in the early written language. So it was intended to be "God's Friday" - But that would mean that there's an entire Christian celebration based on a typo.

Either way, its not supposed to actually mean "good." The German phrase for Good Friday is (when translated) Mourning Friday, which makes a lot more sense.

There. We all learned something.

Reading for April 2
Deuteronomy 21:1-22:30
There are all sorts of rules here. What to do with murderers, unruly children, marriage, first born child regulations, etc. The one that I want to talk about is the unruly children one. Check it:

¹⁸ If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him, ¹⁹ his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town. ²⁰ They shall say to the elders, "This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a profligate and a drunkard." ²¹ Then all the men of his town shall stone him to death. You must purge the evil from among you. All Israel will hear of it and be afraid.

You want your kids to behave? A good old looming threat of being stoned to death will really help someone straighten up and fly right. No?  On the other hand, I imagine (or hope) that this didn't actually happen too often. Just the threat of it alone is reason enough to behave. 

Luke 9:51-10:12
(updated on April 5 - sorry I missed a couple of days. I had my best friends Bachelor Party this weekend)

Jesus is getting close to his fated crucifixion, and the opening paragraph has quite a striking statement:

⁵¹As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.

This is worded from the glass-is-half-full point of view. That being the euphemism of Jesus being taken up to Heaven. Obviously the half-empty point of view would be

"As the time approached for him to be beaten and crucified..."

However, these two things are inexorably tied together. Jesus will be taken up to heaven out of Jerusalem, but three days before that, he will be completely destroyed. So he is setting out for Jerusalem, the place of his ultimate demise, in a "resolute" fashion.

Resolute: Marked by firm determination.

He was determined to go through the torture and death which we deserved, but he accepted. Now let's pretend for a moment that the resurrection did not actually happen. Perhaps, you already believe that it didn't happen, which is fine, but let's also make the assumption that Jesus was an actual person, who lived on the earth, and that the stories about him in the gospels are true, barring the resurrection of course.

Now, with all that in mind, what possible reason would Jesus have for "resolutely setting out for Jerusalem", knowing he would be tortured, killed and buried? The normal human reaction would be to flee.

"Dude, Jesus - these guys are going to freaking kill you!"
"Oh. Seriously? But why? I'm so nice."
"I don't know man, but I think we should bail."
"Hmmm...you're probably right. Let's hit it. Is there gas in my Hyundai?"

In fact, the disciples tried to talk Jesus out of this responsibility. Peter famously did this and Jesus called him Satan. So Jesus had many chances to bail on the death of a criminal, and yet he didn't. He would not have any reason to go through this unless he absolutely believed he would be resurrected. Now you could say he was just a delusional maniac who genuinely believed in things that weren't actually possible. But I guess that's where faith separates the believers and non-believers...


Psalm 74:1-23
Something interesting about the Psalms, in general. God seems to already be completely absent from humanity, at least in terms of physical interaction. I can't think of a single psalm that David wrote that talks about direct interaction with God, and the way Psalm 74 is worded by the author Asaph, really brings this point to light. Verse 8 is in reference to the enemies of the Israelites.

⁸ They said in their hearts, "We will crush them completely!"
       They burned every place where God was worshiped in the land.

 ⁹ We are given no miraculous signs;
       no prophets are left,
       and none of us knows how long this will be.
 ¹⁰ How long will the enemy mock you, O God?
       Will the foe revile your name forever?
 ¹¹ Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand?
       Take it from the folds of your garment and destroy them!

Verse 9 is so striking because it is such a modern dilemma. God does not show his face now-a-days. It is reaffirming that people had the same issue of faith that many modern Christians have today - that being, not ever actually "seeing" God. That issue went as far back as the years before Christ came.

Proverbs 12:11
 ¹¹ He who works his land will have abundant food,
       but he who chases fantasies lacks judgment.


Alright. Excellent. I still have to work on Saturday, Sunday and today. So I may be lagging behind for a few days, but please know that I am not giving up. I will catch up as quickly as I can.