Our church this morning was surprisingly upbeat. Surprising, because it’s Good Friday, the day when Christian commemorate the crucifixion and death of Christ. Not exactly cheerful subject matter. In my western Christian tradition, it’s normally a fairly somber day, with a focus not only on Christ’s suffering but our own […]
A local church here in Dar posted an explanation (in English) about why Good Friday is called good. Their answer was that it is good because his death leads to a resurrection, so in the end it is good news. They mention that his suffering was for our salvation but […]
What is the message of Good Friday? Until I lived in Tanzania, I would have thought it was fairly straightforward: the focus is the death of Jesus for our sins, in short, the atonement. But at our church yesterday, the atonement was present, but characteristically not the focus. The ‘liturgy’ […]
Each Good Friday we pause to consider the son of God hanging on a cross, humiliated, broken and weak. And for many of us, I suspect that this is deeply guilt inducing. We know we should feel thankful but we secretly formulate this year’s list of sins: gossip, nagging, making-good-things-ultimate, […]
Meet Jesus at uni 