When
thinking of ‘good Friday’, I always thought, for the person on the Cross to
whom Jesus said that ‘today you will be with me in paradise’, it was a ‘good
Friday’, and to the other person who mocked Jesus it was a ‘bad Friday.’ What
is ‘good’ in ‘good Friday’ has always been a perennial question that people of
faith communities across the histories and contexts keep interrogating with. How can the brutal killing of Jesus on the
Cross be called ‘good Friday?’ What is the politics of ‘good Friday?’
There
have been theories on the etymology of the ‘good Friday’ for some have referred
it to ‘God’s Friday’ for it synchronizes with the root meanings of ‘goodbye’
which means ‘God be with you.’ The day has always been referred to as ‘holy
Friday’ like that of the rest of the week days in the ‘Holy week.’ In my local
Church tradition, ‘good Friday’ is translated as ‘Maha Sukravaram’ (‘great Friday’ in Telugu language), where the
emphasis of Jesus’ act on the Cross has been considered as great sacrifice for
the salvation of the entire humanity.
On
the one hand, we are aware of Plato’s theory of ‘Form of Good’ which is
understood as the ‘ultimate principle’, for the ultimate ‘good’ illuminates all
other forms, both in the empirical world and in the world outside of time and
space. On the other hand, there are philosophies that profess that there is no
such a thing as good and evil, and they are only as people desire, where ‘good’
is recognized as a ‘subjective value.’ All of these thinking direct us in our
grappling with ‘good’ in ‘good Friday.’
‘Good
Friday’ is not about ‘romanticizing Jesus suffering and his death,’ rather a
call to locate God among the crucified. There
was a political bargain from the courts of Pilate, whom to crucify and whom to
leave scot-free, and we know that the community chose ‘Barabbas’ (Bar Abbas in Hebrew means ‘Son of God’),
which lead Jesus to his crucifixion. Good
Friday, the day on which Jesus was killed is highly political, for Jesus died a
political martyrdom. Therefore, one cannot unthread the political aspect of
Jesus’s death on Cross from his holistic act of salvation. ‘Good Friday’ also
calls us to unpack it from the colonial enfleshments that it carries, for this
‘good Friday’ is also understood in contrast to ‘black Fridays’ (very colonial
term) where consumerism is celebrated to its core. Here is a subversive reading
of ‘good Friday,’ which serves as one perspectives among many, that helps us in
problematizing the same for our times today.
1.
‘Good Friday’ is
about exposing the unjust political systems of the state that represses and
criminalises Jesus for believing and professing in an alternative value system
which is the Kingdom of God, for he was nailed on the Cross with an inscription
‘King of Jews.’ Jesus’ disapproval of a military state led him to be branded as
a ‘political insurgent’ and eventually led him to be killed on the Cross.
2.
‘Good Friday’ is
a day where an innocent Jesus was falsely implicated and was taken to be
crucified on a Cross, along with two other bandits of his times, at a public
criminal execution place, which was ‘outside of the camp.’ It was a place where
the soldiers gambled on Jesus’ clothes, spit on him, and rebuked him with all
possible insults. Jesus died as a political martyr.
3.
When Jesus cried
‘my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ many around his Cross mocked him
saying that he was calling on Elijah for help and rescue. To that question, we
see that there was silence from God’s side. We run a risk of translating God’s
silence as God’s absence. The politic of this saying needs to consider that God
joins in the suffering of people, where God grieves along with those that are
suffering to lead them into the resurrection experience.
4.
The politics of
‘good Friday’ is always related to the ‘best Sunday’ to come, the ‘Easter day’,
where God raised him from the death. It displays a politics of hope, for death
and regimes of oppression are defeated and chained in the empty tomb of Jesus
Christ. Resurrection of Jesus from death was a huge blow to the empire that
believed that there is no opposition to their force, for on that day death died
and was buried.
‘Good
Friday’ therefore challenges us humanity to locate crucified Jesus’ among us,
among our histories, among our contexts, who are opposing the repressive
regimes of our times, and stand along with them in their struggles for justice,
the highest good. ‘Good Friday’ finds its fuller meaning not in religious
sanctuaries, not in our cosy comfortable zones, not in our parochial colonies
but on the public streets where people are time and again crucified by the
unjust systems of violence. ‘Good Friday’ comes alive and becomes meaningful
‘outside the camps’ of our times, in the veli
vada (untouchable ghettos), in the refugee camps, in the excluded zones, in
the prisons, etc. ‘Good Friday’ becomes relevant by disavowing hegemonic powers
and principalities that suppress and marginalize people and communities and by
standing for justice and peace of our times. The calling of our spirituality is
to become politically sensitive to our contexts and attempt in relating our
faith to the times of our times.
Wishing
you all a meaningful observance of Good Friday.
Rajbharat
Patta
Pic courtesy: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/b6/fc/22/b6fc2293a751e215dc7f8c25af6441ba.jpg
7 comments:
thank you for sharing your thoughts....wonderful read..
thank you Tokato for ur comment
Empowering 👍
Tysm Anna
Great reflection. Reminded me Agamben's concept of homosacer, the one who is inside-out.
This is a great read and indeed relevant even today. Thanks anna.
Very Informative and useful... Keep it up the great work. http://goodfridaymorning.com/good-friday-hd-images/
Thanks For Sharing Such an Informative Article.
Happy Good Friday Images
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