GOOD FRIDAY: SHAME UPON JESUS!!

We are in a very long historical weekend that significantly has three days: FRIDAY, SATURDAY, and SUNDAY. It is a weekend that we all know as EASTER. Easter is a period when Christians celebrate the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. For those of you who do not really know who this Jesus Christ was, let me just simply state who Jesus Christ was. JESUS CHRIST was God himself who became man to save man. I have taught and preached about this before in case you have questions please contact me.

Before I talk about FRIDAY, SATURDAY, and SUNDAY, I have to categorically point out that the word Easter is not in the Bible. I am aware of some Bible versions that have the word ‘Easter’ in them but this is a mistranslation of the word ‘Passover’. It is important that I also inform you that the festival of Easter, just like Christmas, and other festivals that Christianity celebrates today, is deeply rooted in pagan customs.

Easter, like Christmas, is originally a pagan custom. In fact, the etymological theory of the word ‘Easter’ is a corruption of ‘Astarte’, the mother goddess of the ancient Assyrians, also known as ‘Ishtar’. The Sumerians, especially the Assyrians, worshiped a goddess known by the name: Inanna, and it was this goddess who, in her civilization state, took on the name: ‘Ishtar’.

The myth surrounding the cult of this goddess Inanna or Ishtar was that; this goddess was hung naked on a stake, and was subsequently rebirthed and ascended from the underworld. There are some other interesting facts surrounding the Easter and Lenten season. Notice:

“In Babylon, a 40-day fast was observed as an important preliminary of the “great feast” held in commemoration of the “death and rebirth of Tammuz [Nimrod]. Lent is borrowed from the worshippers of the Babylonian queen of heaven (Semiramis)”.

Any encyclopedia shows that Christmas, New Year’s, Lent, Easter, Halloween and Valentine’s Day, etc. are pagan festivals long predating Christianity.

There are two factions in Christianity about the celebration of these days that have pagan origins as I have briefly stated. The first group is one that draws its arguments from the strict puritans who resisted the idea of Christianizing these pagan festivals. And you will always hear these voices from many extreme conservatives whenever we are in these periods. And these puritans are historically right when they remind us that it was Emperor Constantine in A.D. 325 who turned this pagan festival known as Easter into a church festival.

However, before Constantine openly, in that conference, declared this a Church festival, Christian preachers had begun attracting pagans to their biblical festival known as the Passover. I belong to a Christian faction that believes that Easter is no longer a pagan festival but actually the Biblical Passover celebration.

The pagan Easter did not displace the Biblical Passover and here are the reasons:

• The pagans celebrated a goddess known as Ishtar, but true Christians celebrate Jesus Christ the true great God as Titus 2:13-14 puts it: while we wait for the blessed hope–the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.
• The pagans celebrated life through a rebirth but true Christians celebrate a life through a resurrection. Pagans never taught resurrection but a rebirth.
• The pagans conducted Easter through its pagan customs and rituals and these customs were permanent symbols. Such as the Hare Bunny and the Egg. The Bible makes no mention of a long-eared, short-tailed creature who delivers decorated eggs to well-behaved children on Easter Sunday. Easter eggs are linked to pagan traditions. The egg, an ancient symbol of new life, has been associated with pagan festivals celebrating spring. The Bible says nowhere that we should fast for forty days as we approach the Easter or the Passover holiday. True Christians, however, do understand that the lamb, the blood on the doorpost, the bitter herbs of the Old Testament Passover were not permanent symbols to be practiced but symbols that pointed to Jesus Christ and they have no room after him. The Bible says in John 5:39 that: You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me.

So those who have a problem with Easter being celebrated in Christianity must understand two things: first that we celebrate a Christian real historical occasion, not a pagan myth. While the pagans celebrated the goddess known as Ishtar and her rebirth, we celebrate a God who systematically, through the Cross, Death, and Resurrection redeemed us. Just like we all use heathen channels to communicate divine matters, I don’t have a problem using the internet for Christian purposes despite the fact that it is dominated by pagans. The second thing that we all must understand is that early church preachers like Jesus Christ and Apostle Paul understood the difference between Syncretism, Obscurantism, and Gospel Cultural Contextualization. Let me briefly define these terms.

• Syncretism: Is the concrete mixture and fusion of two or more thought systems synthesized to become one. Religious syncretism usually involves the addition of a few essential parts of one religion to a dominant religion, resulting in a new religious system. If we add all the pagan rites and rituals of Easter to the Biblical Passover then we are syncretic. But if we maintain the Biblical emblems then this is not syncretism.

• Obscurantism: is over emphasis of the less important at the expense of the gist of the matter. It is when people focus too much on why we call the Passover week, Easter which is a pagan name. It is when someone confuses the gospel with some idea or expression external to the gospel. We must be careful not to obscure the gospel for the sake of an idea or truth that is less important. Ultimately, seeing these things as the gospel is actually a false gospel.

• Contextualization: is the process of making the gospel and Christianity as much at home as possible in a given cultural context. The apostle Paul gave an instructive example of contextualization in his sermon on the Areopagus in Athens (Acts 17:22-30). First, Paul used a pagan altar to an unknown god as a bridge to taking about the true God. We already know from Acts 17:16 that Paul’s spirit was provoked by the idolatry he saw in Athens. He certainly was not condoning a pagan altar, nor was he implying that the Athenians had been worshipping the true God without actually knowing it through that altar. Still, he felt free to use something in their (utterly wrong) religious system as a bridge to bring them along to accurate thoughts about the real God. So this is why I have no problem with the Christian Easter. Since our Easter, unlike the pagan one, focuses on three foundational days which are: FRIDAY, SATURDAY, and SUNDAY.

Let me talk about this long weekend in the life of our savior and messiah Jesus Christ. It all begun on Friday. A Friday we commonly call Good Friday. This FRIDAY is one I call THE WALK OF SHAME ON JESUS. Jesus was betrayed by one of his twelve disciples, he was denied by the religion of Judaism which was the custodian of his Holy oracles and he was killed by the then political power which was the Roman Empire. On Friday (which is the sixth day of the week), he was beaten, scourged and stripped naked as he was led to Golgotha.

Jesus was made guilty without evidence and he was classified amongst the topmost criminals who deserved death by hanging on the Roman cross. Crucifixion was not a Jewish practice. The Jews had four different ways of carrying out the death sentence. One was by the sword (Exodus 21:14), they could burn you (Leviticus 20:14), they could stone you to death like they did to Stephen (Leviticus 20:27) and by strangling (Numbers 25:4). The only thing that the Jews hanged on a tree (stake) was a dead body, to embarrass the late. They did this to dead soldiers of an army that had attacked, and all other public criminals.

The Romans copied the killing on the cross from the Phoenicians. The ancient world knew it very well that death by crucifixion was the most terrible death and the most shameful one. To the Jews, to be hanged on the cross/stake meant to be equated to the corpse of a foe army or a serpent that caused pain to them. This is what Jesus became. This is why the cross became a stumbling block. To the Romans and other heathen people, you were morally imbecilic, who hanged naked on the cross, stayed there until you died and ravenous birds and beasts fed on your corpse from there (Deuteronomy 21:23).

Good Friday is a day when God is embarrassed and ashamed, not for his actions, but for the actions of those he came to save.  Professor Mark Baker says:

“Shame was central to the crucifixion itself. Romans opted for crucifixion for its public, humiliating quality. The cross is the ultimate tale of a person being labeled as an outcast. Jesus endured actual, concrete shame. This fulfilled Isaiah’s vision of God’s servant who would bear tremendous shame (Isa 49:7; 50:6-8; 53:2-3)”

When Adam and Even made the wrong choice, they became subject to nothing but shame and Guilt. You and I are guilty of something. Some of our crimes are known by other people, while some crimes are known only by ourselves. Either way, we are guilty of something in our lives. We live in a generation which is past-feelings, people no longer feel ashamed of their acts. Some embarrassing situations are justified and celebrated and the culprits turned into heroes and icons. But still, guilt and shame will haunt us in various forms and shapes in the now and the then.

We have social media where people embarrass others from, and we all have pics we don’t need to be posted on the internet for everyone to see. We have that guilt and embarrassing things hidden in our lives. We from time to time cover our guilt and shame with fig leaves that will eventually wither and our nakedness be exposed. Good Friday is here to tell us that Jesus took on all our past, present and future shame. If we believe in him, he will remove our shame and guilty.

Jesus bore the consequences of that shame—rejection, isolation, and ultimately, death—in our place. Those in Christ will not face shame (Romans 10:11; 1Peter 2:6-7). Jesus removes our shame. All people have done shameful things, which makes us shameful in God’s eyes (Genesis 3; Ezekiel 16). Because of our shameful sin, we lack God’s glory (Romans 3:23).

In Galatians 3:13, Paul referenced his Jewish theology when he said: Cursed is he that hangs on a tree, yet, he took our curse in the Fathers will doing the work he was sent to do. There was no shame by or wrong doing in Jesus Christ but he took on our shame. We all have friends and lovers but few of them would stand with us in shame and guilt. Jesus, on the cross naked, was divine humiliation in the flesh, Jesus was tortured and abused, he took our blame, yet was without fault.

Let me ask you friend: Do you feel ashamed, for what reason? Are you struggling with an addiction, did you hurt someone? Are you responsible for the injury of someone? Perhaps you are cheating on your spouse. Or maybe you were involved in a hit and run car accident. Whatever it is that you are ashamed of and guilty about, this guilt will kill you and eventually be exposed. You need to take on Jesus Christ and cast all your shame, guilt and blame on him. There is no shame in serving Jesus. Don’t let the enemy put guilt and shame into your mind. Examine every thought with God’s word and reject that which is not of him.

Good Friday is our time to repent and let Jesus take the blame and shame. I don’t care whether you are struggling with past mistakes and wrongs choices, the Bible says in Isaiah 43:25 “I, I am the one who blots out your transgression for my own sake, and I‘ll remember your sins no more. People might remember and remind you, but the Good Friday God will not. You might be condemned outside Jesus Christ, but Romans 8:1 reminds you that:  Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in union with the Messiah Jesus. Friends, God is faithful and reliable. If we confess our sins, he forgives them and cleanses us from everything we’ve done wrong. 1 John 1:9.

We committed the crime but it was not shame upon us but shame upon Jesus Christ. Judas committed suicide due to shame and guilt but apostle Peter cried to the Lord, asking that his shame for denying Jesus publicly be removed and yes it was removed. Disciples of Jesus Christ like you and I always betray our Lord in all that we do in secret like Judas and in public like Peter did. It is upon us if we choose to decide whether it becomes SHAME UPON US, or we cast it on our Lord in repentance and it becomes a SHAME UPON JESUS CHRIST.

God bless you: I invoke TRUTH, REASON, and FAITH

Am Pr. I.T. WHITE

The Gospel Hawker