What is the significance of Good Friday?
a) It is the day Jesus was born.
b) It is the day when Jesus died on the cross.
c) It is the day Jesus rose from the dead.
This was a question asked in one TV show for kids last weekend. There were 2 teams competing with 4 members each of kids between the ages of 10 and 12. Believe it or not, none of the teams gave the right answer! (Which of course is letter b).
Ask this question to any 10 year old kid from the Philippines and you can be assured that you’ll get the right answer 99% of the time. As someone who grew up from a Catholic country, I thought these facts about Jesus are common knowledge. Too common, in fact, that asking them in a quiz show sounds ridiculous. More so giving an incorrect answer is almost sacrilegious. So, it was a bit of a culture shock for me to find out that here in NZ, a lot of children (and I’m sure even adults) hardly even knew anything about Jesus’ life.
In another news coverage last Sunday, a reporter was interviewing people on the street asking them what occasion we celebrate on Easter Sunday. From the answers given by the interviewees you can sense that very few really understand the meaning of Christ’s Resurrection. Some don’t even know that Jesus is the reason for Easter. There was one kid who said Easter Sunday is the day when bunnies go searching for eggs; that he is happy to celebrate it because he gets to eat big chocolate Easter eggs. It may be funny for others, but for me I felt really sad, angry even for some people’s seeming indifference to someone who’s paid the ultimate sacrifice for mankind. The least they could do is to know the basic facts about His life and death.
Oh well. It’s a different country, different people, different culture, different beliefs. Not everyone thinks the way we do. The only consolation is knowing that there are lots of people here who knew nothing about Jesus who live humble, honest, moral and decent lives. Compare that with some of our Church-going countrymen, politicians and even leaders of the clergy who live corrupt, decadent double lives. It would have been better if they had not known Jesus at all.
b) It is the day when Jesus died on the cross.
c) It is the day Jesus rose from the dead.
This was a question asked in one TV show for kids last weekend. There were 2 teams competing with 4 members each of kids between the ages of 10 and 12. Believe it or not, none of the teams gave the right answer! (Which of course is letter b).
Ask this question to any 10 year old kid from the Philippines and you can be assured that you’ll get the right answer 99% of the time. As someone who grew up from a Catholic country, I thought these facts about Jesus are common knowledge. Too common, in fact, that asking them in a quiz show sounds ridiculous. More so giving an incorrect answer is almost sacrilegious. So, it was a bit of a culture shock for me to find out that here in NZ, a lot of children (and I’m sure even adults) hardly even knew anything about Jesus’ life.
In another news coverage last Sunday, a reporter was interviewing people on the street asking them what occasion we celebrate on Easter Sunday. From the answers given by the interviewees you can sense that very few really understand the meaning of Christ’s Resurrection. Some don’t even know that Jesus is the reason for Easter. There was one kid who said Easter Sunday is the day when bunnies go searching for eggs; that he is happy to celebrate it because he gets to eat big chocolate Easter eggs. It may be funny for others, but for me I felt really sad, angry even for some people’s seeming indifference to someone who’s paid the ultimate sacrifice for mankind. The least they could do is to know the basic facts about His life and death.
Oh well. It’s a different country, different people, different culture, different beliefs. Not everyone thinks the way we do. The only consolation is knowing that there are lots of people here who knew nothing about Jesus who live humble, honest, moral and decent lives. Compare that with some of our Church-going countrymen, politicians and even leaders of the clergy who live corrupt, decadent double lives. It would have been better if they had not known Jesus at all.
posted by Ka Uro at
4:58 PM
1 Comments:
Preach Jesus to everybody. Tell them John 3:16 and Romans 10:9. You can tell them the love of God by sending His Son to die for our sins. By believing and accepting Jesus as their Lord and Saviour they will be save from the wrath of God that will come to the sons of disobedience.
God bless you.
Forgiven Sinner
By
Anonymous, at 9:42 AM, March 08, 2008
Post a Comment
<< Home