Saint Anne Orthodox Church

by Hieromonk Calinic (Berger)

• How can we understand why Christ died the way He did?
• What is the meaning then of Good Friday?
• Are Christians today honoring this one day as they should?

Though the answer to the first question is vast and deep, we might start with one perspective: the Apostle Paul draws a parallel between the first man, Adam, and our Lord Jesus Christ, whom he calls the “second Adam” (cf. I Cor. 15:22, 45). The Fathers of the Church – for example, Irenaeus and Justin Martyr – built on this theme, drawing parallels between the first Adam and the second, or “new Adam,” Christ. The first Adam is the “son of God” (Lk. 3:38), a special creation made in the “image” of God (Gen. 1:26), uniting in himself the material and spiritual worlds. The new Adam is preeminently the Son of God, the express image of God (Col. 1:15, Heb. 1:3), uniting in Himself heaven and earth, the Uncreated and the created. The first Adam has no human father – he is the root of humanity, for from Adam are all born; and the new Adam has no human father – he is the root of renewed humanity, for in Christ are all baptized, or born anew.

Through His entire life, Christ the New Adam undoes what the first Adam brought about, in order to confirm humanity in its new beginning. The first Adam, tempted in a garden, sinned; the new Adam, tempted in a desert, did not sin. The first Adam, in accepting Eve’s stretching out her hands to a tree in egotism, fell from communion with God and then blamed others for the occurrence. The new Adam stretched out his hands on the tree of the Cross, in self-sacrifice, and then forgave others for the occurrence. From the rib, or side, of the first Adam, came his bride, Eve, while he was in a deep sleep. From the side of the new Adam, came also His bride, the Church (as blood and water – Eucharist and baptism) while He was in the sleep of death. The act of the first Adam, which expressed disobedience stemming from egotism, a false autonomy, self-preservation and even a “survival of the fittest” mentality, resulted in separation from God and the entrance of death into the world. All of these things were reversed through Christ’s obedience “even unto death” (Phil. 2:8), in a renunciation of all self-preservation, egotism and any autonomy apart from God. In place of the egotism of the old Adam, there is the perfect and total self-sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Its result is resurrection from the dead and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, man’s restoration to a state of grace-filled immortality.

Thus, Christ’s death on the Cross is the definitive act which undoes the legacy of the first Adam. It is the culmination of God’s great economy for our salvation and “opens for us the way to paradise” by occasioning our resurrection, our union with God, our deification. “We needed an Incarnate God, a God put to death, that we might live,” wrote St. Gregory the Theologian (Or. 45.28). The Cross is the fulfillment and purpose of the Incarnation. Yet Christ did not simply die; He died in degradation, in abandonment, in all the fullness of human tragedy and horror. He identifies with the worst of the human condition; He becomes “a curse” for us (Gal. 3:13). He accepts it all, innocently, that He might free us from it all (Heb. 4:15, 9:26-8). Such was His great act of love and self-sacrifice.

Christ leaves nothing undone for our salvation – both generally, and in the lives of each human individual. It is only up to us to appropriate His gift. But according to the Lord Himself, there is only one way to do this: “take up the cross and follow Me” (Lk. 9:23).

Should this not begin by honoring the commemoration of this great event, which brought about our salvation? How is it then, that Christians today – of all denominations – cannot take off from work or school this one day, the holiest day of the year, on which what Jesus Christ did for the salvation of each one of us is remembered and honored? A profound and spectacular drama occurred on that one day – and yet the world goes about its business, taking absolutely no notice whatsoever.

One author, an American Protestant, David Rensberger, has recently published some very insightful reflections about the (lack of) observance of Good Friday in America. He writes that he feels out of place in society on that day, that the normalcy of daily life seems “bizarre, remote, almost unreal,” and that there is a spiritually perceptible disconnect between the believer and the rest of the world on that day. He expresses well the feelings that many Orthodox who have sought to enter deeply into Good Friday services also experience.

He makes another significant observation: Good Friday is unmarketable. There is no money to be made on this day – media, retail and advertising giants have nothing to gain. So they ignore it. One point might be added: in our society today, Good Friday is not a holiday. It is the one day a year that a Christian must make a sacrifice to observe. Our Orthodox Church calls us to do precisely that, for Good Friday is the strictest fast day of the year. “We do not eat on this day of the Crucifixion,” states the Typic. Even today, pious believers will strive not to eat until after the Lamentations, or at least until after Vespers.

Jesus felt abandoned on the Cross. Except for His Mother and few others, all His friends, disciples, and even the multitudes of people whom He had healed, raised from the dead, forgiven and taught – all were gone in His moments on the Cross. Last of all, He felt abandoned by God: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken Me?” (Mk. 27:46). But God did not abandon Jesus. Neither does He abandon us. So let us not abandon Jesus on the Cross anew. We know what the disciples might not have understood at that time: that Jesus will rise from the dead, filled with the Holy Spirit, in a glorified, spiritualized body, as the God-man. We have therefore no excuse – we need only to put “first things first” and show by our concrete deeds our gratitude to our Lord for what He did for us on the Cross. Should this not include our fully honoring that one day per year?

Let us make every effort – through our keeping the fast, our laying aside of every other concern and our attending all of the divine services – to keep that day, that one day a year, Good Friday, sacred and holy, as it is indeed. The purpose of honoring Good Friday is to show Christ our gratitude for His act, our love for Him, and our fervent desire to be included among His disciples, whom He makes into the adopted sons of God, the community of redeemed sinners, Spirit-bearing and Christ-like, and who have taken up the cross and will therefore share in His resurrection from the dead.

Reprinted with permission from Solia - The Herald, Volume LXXV, Number 1, January / February 2010