It's Good Friday. As someone who was went to church every Sunday, attended a parochial school and was VERY Christian before I started asking tough questions, I'd like to take a look at Easter, my least favorite Christian holy day. If you are a practicing Christian you might be offended. That is not my intention. I love the teachings of Jesus. If you practice the teachings I won't be offending you. If you buy the myths of the many early religions that got co-opted and rolled into Christianity then you might be a teeeny bit pissed. But hey! Aren't you all about forgiveness?
He was crucified and died. They took him down from the cross and put him in the tomb. On the third day he rose.
If he was crucified and died on Friday and put in the tomb sometime late that day, Sunday morning isn't really three days later, is it? Probably nit-picking, but even in ancient Jerusalem they had math.
Why didn't he walk around town and show everybody he was resurrected? Why did he only appear to his followers and not to the Pharisees and the Romans? It would have given him a much stronger case as the Messiah.
I really hate the torture part. Even as a kid I was creeped out by the central image of Christianity, a tortured man with nails in his palms hanging from a cross.(I thought that's what Palm Sunday was about). When I got older and had friends die of AIDS and cancer or suffer with debilitating and painful diseases, I felt they had suffered more than Jesus, so why was Jesus held up as though no one else had ever suffered as HE had. And if he KNEW he was the Son of God and was automatically going to heaven, then his suffering was different than other human suffering, like when rich people pay money to spend the night in jail for charity. It isn't the same as being thrown in jail because the rich people know they get to go home the next day and take a nice shower and eat a big breakfast. Not the same at all.
So as I wrap this up, let's all thank Mithras, the ancient Persian god who was born of a virgin, and Horus, the Egyptian god who was a reincarnation of his father Osiris, for laying the groundwork for the historical Jesus, who very probably existed but was a teacher and not born of a virgin or walked on water or turned water into wine. Here is a song I learned it from the Catholic kid who lived next door. Sing it to the tune of "Take Me Out To The Ball Game". I usually sing it at Easter brunch.
Take me up to the mountain
Nail me up to the Cross
Give me a robe and a thorny crown
I don't care if I ever come down
Cuz we'll start a great new religion
And it will all be OK
For it's ONE, TWO, THREE nights and then
It is Easter Day!