Good Friday
Today is Good Friday, when Christians around the world remember that Jesus died on the cross.
To Christians Jesus was the Son of God, the saviour who came down from heaven and died to save all the people of the Earth.
To Muslims he is the second most important prophet of their religion, after only Mohammed.
For those who are not of either of those faiths, the historical evidence remains overwhelming that he was a real person whose teaching has inspired literally billions of people over two thousand years, that however much some people have perverted that teaching, he wanted people to love, forgive and help one another, and among those people who made a real attempt to follow what he actually said are many who have made the world a better place. Neither can their be much doubt that Jesus was executed by the Roman governor Pontius Pilate for his teachings, that he knew perfectly well that preaching as he did was putting himself at risk of that fate, and he did so anyway because he was willing to die to spread a message of peace and love.
Sometimes I am very proud of things the human race has achieved, but at other times, when I think of the amazing person who died on the cross on that first Good Friday, I am ashamed at how little progress we have made in two thousand years towards his vision of a world of Peace and Love, and that terrible crimes, conduct totally contrary to Jesus's precepts as recorded in the New Testament, were committed by people who called themselves Christians and claimed - falsely - to be acting in his name. Sometimes by the church itself.
For those who follow the Christian Faith, today is a day to reflect on the things which we have done wrongly, to pray for forgiveness, and to pray and reflect on how we can do better.
POSTSCRIPT
It is important to avoid either complacency or despair. I stand by the words above about how much more progress we should have made towards a world where people treat each other on the basis of love, compassion and justice rather than hate and fear. And yet we should not imagine there was no progress at all.
This evening (still Good Friday) I clicked on the clip I had posted on 29th March of the Praeludium from Greig's Holberg Suite played at Oslo University by the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra.
I looked at the musicians and I thought to myself, can you really believe that most of these performers probably had lots of vikings among their ancestors?
That brought home to me, they are using the skill and energy they obviously have in abundance to make beautiful music and bring pleasure to large numbers of people. Can you honestly say there has been no progress in the past twelve hundred years? Of course not. Long may it continue.
To Christians Jesus was the Son of God, the saviour who came down from heaven and died to save all the people of the Earth.
To Muslims he is the second most important prophet of their religion, after only Mohammed.
For those who are not of either of those faiths, the historical evidence remains overwhelming that he was a real person whose teaching has inspired literally billions of people over two thousand years, that however much some people have perverted that teaching, he wanted people to love, forgive and help one another, and among those people who made a real attempt to follow what he actually said are many who have made the world a better place. Neither can their be much doubt that Jesus was executed by the Roman governor Pontius Pilate for his teachings, that he knew perfectly well that preaching as he did was putting himself at risk of that fate, and he did so anyway because he was willing to die to spread a message of peace and love.
Sometimes I am very proud of things the human race has achieved, but at other times, when I think of the amazing person who died on the cross on that first Good Friday, I am ashamed at how little progress we have made in two thousand years towards his vision of a world of Peace and Love, and that terrible crimes, conduct totally contrary to Jesus's precepts as recorded in the New Testament, were committed by people who called themselves Christians and claimed - falsely - to be acting in his name. Sometimes by the church itself.
For those who follow the Christian Faith, today is a day to reflect on the things which we have done wrongly, to pray for forgiveness, and to pray and reflect on how we can do better.
POSTSCRIPT
It is important to avoid either complacency or despair. I stand by the words above about how much more progress we should have made towards a world where people treat each other on the basis of love, compassion and justice rather than hate and fear. And yet we should not imagine there was no progress at all.
This evening (still Good Friday) I clicked on the clip I had posted on 29th March of the Praeludium from Greig's Holberg Suite played at Oslo University by the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra.
I looked at the musicians and I thought to myself, can you really believe that most of these performers probably had lots of vikings among their ancestors?
That brought home to me, they are using the skill and energy they obviously have in abundance to make beautiful music and bring pleasure to large numbers of people. Can you honestly say there has been no progress in the past twelve hundred years? Of course not. Long may it continue.
(Comments on this thread which are offered in a constructive manner will be accepted. Comments which indulge in any kind of point-scoring whether personal, political, or religious, will be deleted.)
Comments
Religions of all kinds dont take to their beleif being questioned, or those teaching something different so well. we see this from the Jesus story, and 2000 years on it still rings true as we can see from Kenya this weekend
That is a postion that could be faced by DC, and 2000 years ago a very "against the grain" decision had to be made by Pilate.
Politics and compromise are all over history, but the christian religion is the easiest to spot it thanks to political desisions by Constantine and the council of Nicea.
The story of Pilate illustrates the kind of unprincipled compromise which even good rulers can find it all too easy to make. He sentenced Jesus to death, not because he thought he was guilty, but because he didn't want the hassle of over-riding the views of the local religion. And accordingly to the bible account he tried to escape responsibility for his own decisions by literally washing his hands, and by writing "The King of the Jews" on the inscription over Jesus's head on the cross.
However, I do think there is a huge distinction between sentencing a man you think is innocent to death for political reasons, and respecting the result of a national referendum even if you disagree with it. The first is sacrificing Justice and Principle alike to political advantage: the other is supporting the principle of democracy that the people should decide.
The other point about the story of Jesus' execution is the case it makes for one of your Harrogate Agenda principles which is now fairly well established in at least some aspects of the British constitution - the separation of powers. Where in the past kings, nobles and politicians had the power of life or death over the people they ruled, justice is now the preserve of the courts. And however imperfect our legal system, I'm very glad of it.