A Reflection for Good Friday
Taken from http://www.oxford.anglican.org/covers/good-friday.shtml

by Rhiannon Stranks, St Augustine of Canterbury Upper School (Year 10)

Having been brought up in a Christian family, I've heard the Easter story for as long as I can remember, and have always been taught that it is an amazing story with huge significance. Until recently however I never understood it or accepted it personally - for me. I knew there was something missing in my belief of the story, but could never quite put my finger on it. As a result of not fully understanding the Easter story or the 'motives' behind it, I was extremely confused for many years every time Easter rolled around.

Things didn't begin to change until the summer of 2000 when my family and I made a trip to Northern Ireland. While there, we attended a Christian conference, and for the first time I could really personally relate to what I was being told. I finally began to understand the basic principles of Christianity that I had never found out for myself before, even though I claimed to be a Christian and tried to live a Christian life. I'm guessing it was here that my journey of understanding the Easter story began.

Historical facts tell us that around the year 30 AD, a man called Jesus, claiming to be the son of God, was nailed to a tree and died a slow and painful death. Three days later he was seen walking around and heard talking to hundreds of people. He had been dead, but now he was alive. That much is not complicated to understand, and these were facts that I'd accepted as a child. As I was growing up however, I began to realise there is much more to this story than I had originally thought. Jesus really had been the son of God, and he really had died and risen again, but why had God, the supposedly peace-loving, non-violent God, allowed his son to be murdered in such a brutal and vicious manner? I think it's quite understandable that I was confused! But then, in that summer of 2000, I was being 'preached' at hour after hour, day after day, for 7 days straight, and I could not get away from the fact that God loves me. I had no option but to accept this, but I didn't mind at all! It's a brilliant fact! I suppose that I had always known that God loves me more than anyone else ever has and ever will, but I had not realised that, in accordance with this, God will love me no-matter what I do. He will be hurt when I go against His will, yes, but stop loving me, never. It was only after I had realised and accepted this fact of God's undying, unconditional love that the events of the Easter story finally began to make sense to me. The reason God allowed his son Jesus to die on the cross was because he loves me! He loves me so much that he wants me to spend eternity with him, and in order for this to come about, he gave the most precious thing he owned - his son; a pure and blameless man with no sin at all, dying on the cross to save me. Without Jesus doing this, I would not be able to spend eternity with God. Why? Because I have sinned, time after time after time. Millions of times in fact, and in the Bible it tells us 'the wages of sin is death'. Because I have sinned, and because God is a god of justice, I cannot be with God when I die. But God loves me so much that he sent his son to die in my place so that I may have this eternal life with him. If I believe that Jesus truly is the son of God and I ask for forgiveness when I sin, when I do eventually die I will be able to go and live God in heaven for all-time. So although the Easter story sounds complicated, it really isn't. The essence of it is that God loves me so very much that he sent the most precious thing he owned to die in my place, so one I can meet with God and spend eternity with Him.

I really love the Easter story, especially now that I understand it so much more! It's always great to be reminded of how much someone loves you, after all. But even more than that, it reminds me that God understands what I'm going through and how I feel, no-matter what I've done or am going through. Although the Easter story does affect my 'destiny', my new-found understanding of it has also changed the way I think and act every single day of my life. For me, the Easter story does not begin with Jesus being nailed to the cross and end when he rose from the dead three days later. It's my thinking that the Easter story began when Jesus realised he was going to die on a cross, even though he had done nothing wrong. Between this time - whenever it may have been - and the time he was actually nailed to the cross, Jesus experienced a whole range of horrible emotions and situations. He was betrayed and let down my friends; some even denied knowing who he was, he was hated, made to suffer public humiliation in front of hundreds of people, more disliked than a known murderer etc. Add in all Jesus must have been through from the time he was born up until then, and I think it would be fair to say Jesus experienced practically everything people similar to you and me go through every day. He was a child, he was a teenager, and he was an adult. Although there is very little mention of Jesus' childhood in the Bible, it must have happened - people don't go from being 3 years old to 30 just like that! Therefore, when I'm let down by friends, or made to feel unwanted, or humiliated etc, I know that Jesus understands how I feel, and I can talk to him no-matter what, through prayer. Even if my friends stop liking me, I have a huge argument with my parents, and I feel I have no-one to talk to, I can always count on Jesus. He loves me so much that he gave his life so that I might live for ever. There is nothing anyone could every do to convince me more of their unconditional love than to take my place in death and die for me so that I might live. And all I have to do in return is believe.


So that's basically it - what Good Friday means to me. To conclude, I will use the words of this song, as I think they sum up what I've been trying to say, to perfection.