good friday...it comes upon us annually. the day when the entire story of how Jesus died for mankind began. the commencement of the resurrection promise, and the fulfillment of a promise to man.
its also the day when all of my friends suddenly become holy. you know, open pretensious holiness that smirks of an over dramatised emotional display of heavenly virtues all for the sake of the fleeting moment. as expected, i woke up to a blackberry recent activity page with 60% of my contacts posting "for God so love the world", "Christ died to set you free" and bla bla bullshit.
don't get me wrong, i'm all for professing your love for the Almighty. For appreciating his goodness and mercy and the sort of kindness that we're taught in sunday school but we are not quite sure we understand. so okay, when i was younger i used to wonder, why is God so blood thirsty. you know, every single time he wanted to forgive, or to move or be appeased, he'd ask for blood. sacrificing of goats was normal, lamb was specially favoured and once in a while, he'd just feel like almost having human blood spilled...and i say almost cos i dont recall any human sacrifice in the bible except that one time when abraham almost killed his son. there must be something about the human blood that is really special...it almost seems to be the ultimate form of living fluid and specially considered by God.
so two things get me worked up about this annual ritual. firstly, i swear that just yesterday i was chatting with a friend who was very angry with a certain popular figure. as i kept goading him on, this friend of mine called the guy he was angry with, "a useless goat", a waste of space" and an "idiotic vegetable" amongst other similarly gut wrenching names. of course i had to mention that i wasn't quite sure those names were deserved by another living being created by God. and i was promptly told to piss of and stop being sanctimonious. this morning, i woke up to "Christ died that you may live" on his Blackberry profile status and the picture of a cross...riiiiight. all year long everyone carries on living exactly the way they choose: arrogant, unforgiving, self-centred, intensely abusive, fornicating joyously and generally "being true to themselves"...and then during easter weekend, we all suddenly remember God for one or two days, pause to say nice bible verses we don't mean and then get right back to calling girls sluts and boys brainless. collective pretence is the worst vice.
secondly, if the human blood is treated by God with such consideration, and this same God is worshipped by more than 80% of Nigerians in the two major religions, who all claim to know and abide by the tenets in their holy books regarding the sanctity of the human life/blood...how then can we justify the cold blooded murder that has occured in the last week? it is the constant irony that nigeria is so religious, it virtually exports pastors to the other nations of the world and yet its people evince worse traits than aetheist western countries with a less religious population. can we just drop the darn ruse?
so yes, i joined the train by putting up a sincere status on my blackberry status, which i believe dearly and which i hope puts into perspective the true nature of God's love and forgiveness: "For while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" Romans 5:8. you still don't deserve the immense sacrifice that Jesus made, but its still available for you anyways. but if you profess it, then please live it everyday...or else, let it be.
have a symbolic good friday y'all, and think about what it truly means.
its also the day when all of my friends suddenly become holy. you know, open pretensious holiness that smirks of an over dramatised emotional display of heavenly virtues all for the sake of the fleeting moment. as expected, i woke up to a blackberry recent activity page with 60% of my contacts posting "for God so love the world", "Christ died to set you free" and bla bla bullshit.
don't get me wrong, i'm all for professing your love for the Almighty. For appreciating his goodness and mercy and the sort of kindness that we're taught in sunday school but we are not quite sure we understand. so okay, when i was younger i used to wonder, why is God so blood thirsty. you know, every single time he wanted to forgive, or to move or be appeased, he'd ask for blood. sacrificing of goats was normal, lamb was specially favoured and once in a while, he'd just feel like almost having human blood spilled...and i say almost cos i dont recall any human sacrifice in the bible except that one time when abraham almost killed his son. there must be something about the human blood that is really special...it almost seems to be the ultimate form of living fluid and specially considered by God.
so two things get me worked up about this annual ritual. firstly, i swear that just yesterday i was chatting with a friend who was very angry with a certain popular figure. as i kept goading him on, this friend of mine called the guy he was angry with, "a useless goat", a waste of space" and an "idiotic vegetable" amongst other similarly gut wrenching names. of course i had to mention that i wasn't quite sure those names were deserved by another living being created by God. and i was promptly told to piss of and stop being sanctimonious. this morning, i woke up to "Christ died that you may live" on his Blackberry profile status and the picture of a cross...riiiiight. all year long everyone carries on living exactly the way they choose: arrogant, unforgiving, self-centred, intensely abusive, fornicating joyously and generally "being true to themselves"...and then during easter weekend, we all suddenly remember God for one or two days, pause to say nice bible verses we don't mean and then get right back to calling girls sluts and boys brainless. collective pretence is the worst vice.
secondly, if the human blood is treated by God with such consideration, and this same God is worshipped by more than 80% of Nigerians in the two major religions, who all claim to know and abide by the tenets in their holy books regarding the sanctity of the human life/blood...how then can we justify the cold blooded murder that has occured in the last week? it is the constant irony that nigeria is so religious, it virtually exports pastors to the other nations of the world and yet its people evince worse traits than aetheist western countries with a less religious population. can we just drop the darn ruse?
so yes, i joined the train by putting up a sincere status on my blackberry status, which i believe dearly and which i hope puts into perspective the true nature of God's love and forgiveness: "For while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" Romans 5:8. you still don't deserve the immense sacrifice that Jesus made, but its still available for you anyways. but if you profess it, then please live it everyday...or else, let it be.
have a symbolic good friday y'all, and think about what it truly means.
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