Good Friday Stands Alone and Unique

It’s Good Friday. It celebrates the day on which Jesus Christ was sentenced to death and executed by crucifixion—a uniquely cruel form of death, which the Romans probably borrowed from our friends the ancient Iraqi’s (the Assyrians).
It also celebrates the single event that absolutely and totally separates the Christian faith from ALL other religions. No one who understands Good Friday can possibly suggest that Christianity stands as just “another road to the same god.”
There is nothing like the events and theology of Good Friday in Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Shinto, Taoism, Confucianism or any of the modern animist or ancient pagan religions. If nowhere else, on Good Friday Christianity stands unique and alone.
In all these religions, man is left to seek God. It is humanity that does the seeking. It is the human being who must propitiate any offended or angry deity. It is his problem to deal with if he commits a malfeasance that threatens to deny a good reincarnation or a happy hereafter.
Allah may be merciful, but it is up to those who follow Islam to earn that mercy—by following all the requirements of Sharia law. Even orthodox Judaism holds that man must earn the good will of God by keeping the laws found in the Torah, the Talmud, the Mishnah and a host of other legal compilations. God may have sought Abraham, but after that it’s up to men.
Christianity—through Good Friday—says “No” to all of the above. God seeks man—not just one man, like Abraham or Muhammad, but ALL men. He does this, on Good Friday, because men are totally incapable of saving themselves, atoning for their own misdeeds, pleasing God or winning his favor in any regard.
Total incapacity. We betrayed and wrecked the contract he made with the very first humans and the only acceptable payment for treason is death. In the eyes of the Christian God, we are all traitors, all hopelessly tainted with the stench of high treason.
(Benedict Arnold could not have paid enough to win back the good graces of his countrymen. The only thing that would have happened to him had he ever been captured would have been death. In the eyes of the Christian God, all of us are Benedict Arnolds.)
But, according to Jewish and Christian scriptures, God made man for his own company—to enjoy his company, to raise as children and to delight in our growth and achievements. He is not inclined to just walk away and say, “Well, I lost this one”.
To understand Good Friday, it helps to understand what C.S.Lewis was saying in “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe”. Aslan, Christ, cared enough about the human Edmundd—who had betrayed him—to pay the blood debt for him, He died in Edmund’s place.
On Christmas God sent his only begotten son to die in our place. On Good Friday, he accomplished his mission and died for us. No other faith has a God willing to sacrifice so much for human beings. We don’t sacrifice, HE sacrifices in our place.
When Christianity proselytizes, it talks explicitly about one thing and implicitly about another. Explicitly it calls upon men to admit to their treason and accept the sacrifice made for them. Implicitly the question is raised—how will a God, who sent his own son to die for you, finally react if you refuse his offer and distain his sacrifice?
How would you react if you sent your kid to die for someone and he despised your offer? (That’s where and why “Hellfire and Damnation” preaching originates. It is, as Christian scripture says, “a fearful thing to fall into the hands of an angry God”. How angry would you be?)
No other faith makes such an offer—or adds such a warning. Good Friday stands unique and alone. It is a humiliating faith. It says, bluntly, “You’re helpless”. And there’s not a thing you are able to do about it. People like Christmas and Easter; Good Friday isn’t popular.