is it Good Friday...or merely two days away from a bunny delivering chocolates?

 


I just read the Good Friday narrative with a mixture of awe as well as sorrow. Awe that one Man could do what He did for all of us wretched folks here on earth and sadness at those who, in His day, screamed for His crucifixion. A comment left on this site responded how it is amazing that we tend to associate Easter with bunnies and chocolate, when in reality, it was about mankind being saved. I pondered this and realize that the very same thing happened to Christmas. How does buying gifts and running ourselves ragged just to "please" others have anything to do with the birth of a Savior?

Are these merely distractions from the true message? 

Think about this: it's your birthday. You look forward to it all year. You may expect revelry, a dinner, maybe a few gifts if you are lucky. Instead, people are rushing around, buying gifts for someone you don't even know! They are out partying with their own friends, making desserts that Jenny Craig lives for in terms of that mad dash to weight loss...and on it goes.

There you are...bereft...forgotten.

Or maybe your mother has passed on after a horrible, prolonged illness. Instead of the reverence of a funeral, folks are doing things quite contrary to paying last respects to what it was that she stood for while she was alive. How would you feel?

Is the subject of religion so awful that we disguise the true, holy meaning of the message?

Today...it's Good Friday. Say it! Today, Jesus Christ died for you...for me...for all of humanity, that we may have eternal life. Think about the message. Put yourself in that time and place. Jesus, beaten, battered and bloodied, stops right in front of you as He carries that heavy cross. He looks through you, into your very soul. You feel...what?
Think about that today. What do you feel? What thoughts are running through your mind?