Morning Briefing
For Good Friday, March 29 2013
Good Friday to you.
I used to not send a Morning Briefing on Good Friday. But then people would start calling me early to say it hadn't come and ask why. I take Good Friday as a holiday until the sun sets. It marks the three most important days in the history of Mankind. From art to geography, the world has never been the same because of what happened 1,980 years ago this weekend.
After years of people pestering me, I finally decided I would send out the Morning Briefing on Good Friday, but I would do it differently. One post would be a special one reflecting on the day and the other would be scripture. Believe it or not, I've been on vacation this whole week in Hilton Head, SC. That hasn't stopped me from spending five days writing and rewriting the top story at RedState for this morning. Please do read the whole thing and my thanks to those who helped me make sense of otherwise rambling thoughts.
I need to ask a particular favor today as well. Please click here and read Dan McLaughlin's post. If you only read one thing on marriage, this should be it. Please read it.
With that, rejoice. The Lord has risen. Our week of reflecting on this historic event comes to an end with this morning's meditation, the beginning of which is below. If you can, please join me tonight for my annual Good Friday radio program. From 5pm to 8pm ET, I will put this monumental event in perspective on the radio. You can listen live here and call in at 1-800-WSB-TALK. I'm leaving vacation a few days early to keep the tradition of this radio program going. I hope you'll join me.
Have a glorious and blessed Easter.
God bless,
Erick
Christ in a Karmic Age
Every religion and philosophy has a version of the Golden Rule. Until Christ showed up on the scene two thousand years ago, the rule was almost always expressed in the negative — do not do to others what you do not want them to do to you.
It is, if you will allow, a very libertarian philosophy. We can do X, Y, or Z because they do not harm our neighbors. It is the embodiment of karma in today’s culture. We think that we should be allowed to do that which we please as long as we do not harm others. We think that if we do bad things to others, bad things will be visited on us.
When bad things happen to us or someone else and we think the perpetrator has gotten away with it, the average person tends to think that at some point something bad will happen to the perpetrator. “Karma’s a bitch,” the saying goes.
Either God will smite them or fate will intervene. Likewise, many Christians and others of faith think that when we consciously sin, at some point we are going to be punished, rebuked, or otherwise have our comeuppance. This worldly notion of karma that pollutes even the thinking of many a devoted Christian is not very Biblical and it is something preachers should work harder to combat.
So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. Matthew 7:12
Not only did Christ tell us to refrain from acting in a bad way, but he commanded we act in a positive way. He told us to do to others what we would have them do to us. It was not a live and let live philosophy. It was also not a call for the good to be a worldly good — affirming others as they are that they might affirm us. It was a call to do Christ’s good and to love sacrificially as Christ loves. In a karmic age, Christ forces us to confront the idea of grace — a grace that means we have forgiveness without a sword of Damocles hanging over us at any moment dropping should we run afoul of karma.
1,980 Years Ago Today
And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots. And sitting down they watched him there; And set up over his head his accusation written, THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS.
Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This man calleth for Elias. And straightway one of them ran, and took a spunge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink.
The rest said, Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him. Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.
The Gospel of Matthew 27:35-37, 45-53 (link)
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