Good Friday 2013: To Sin and Repent Right Before Easter

It’s that time of year again when Christians come together and show their devotion to God in ways many of us don’t understand. Good Friday is the Friday before Easter Sunday that observes the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. 

The New Testament suggests the crucifixion most likely took place on a Friday. This day marks the end of lent, a period of approximately six weeks that Christians spend in prayer, repentance, and alms giving in honor of God who died for their sins.

Based on events of the Bible, He died on the cross on Good Friday but miraculously returned to life that following Sunday, which is the celebration of Easter. Many of the faithful commit to fasting or giving up certain types of luxuries, like soda or smoking, during lent as a form of penitence. On Friday, they commemorate the agony and suffering of Jesus Christ on the cross. Then on Sunday, they rejoice in the wake of their Lord with baskets of chocolate bunnies and more.

The holiday is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum, which recalls the passion, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus as portrayed in the canonical Gospels. It often coincides with the Jewish observance of Passover, a holiday commemorating their freedom from slavery in ancient Egypt over 3,000 years ago, after which they united under the prophet Moses.

The Paschal Triduum is also a period of suspicion for Christians who fear people not taking repentance as seriously.

“We repent because, if true repentance is accomplished in our lives, it creates a relationship where we become one with Christ through receiving the forgiveness of sin by faith,” is a passage from David’s Repentance. However, if we sin all year and repent at this time, only to sin again and repent again the next liturgical year, then lent doesn't truly serve its purpose.

“Many people go to church and repent, but there are many people who have not been freed and cleansed from sin,” it continues.

Perhaps this is because we live in a secular world where people have a harder time understanding their relationship with God. Nevertheless, Christians have upheld their traditions. This is probably because at one time they spoke something so universal and in many ways delightful, Good Friday excluded, that it stuck. The Beatles, too, will live on.