I’ve read a few thoughtful and inspiring posts this Good Friday from Progressive Christians, my current online church. It has made me see this day of remembrance differently. It reminded me that on Good Friday we remember that Jesus, the person, died. He was betrayed, falsely accused, tortured, then died a cruel death on the instrument of capital punishment of the time, the Roman cross. He ended up on that cross because of the deliberate actions of the religious leaders of his own religion who were so offended by his message of inclusion, compassion, and grace – that God loved and wanted to include those that the religious machine of the day had been systematically marginalizing.
On what we call Good Friday, we Christians should remember that Jesus died because God so loved the marginalized of the world, and that the outwardly religious and inwardly prejudiced killed him.
Today, the religious are still the religious. You can tell who they are because they still marginalize the marginalized and are still offended by Jesus’ message of inclusion.
The marginalized today are the LGBTQ community, minorities, women, the refugee, the immigrant, and the Progressive Christian. We all are not made to feel welcome in the American Christian Church to be who we truly are.
But Jesus died for the marginalized. For us. All. Of. Us. This is what is Good about Good Friday.
No Simple Answers 