What's so good about it?
The other day I was looking up a word in my Thai-English dictionary and my eyes caught an adjacent entry that piqued my interest. This began a chain of looking up words that help explain other words until I came across this one:
เจ้าพ่อเจตคุปต์
Which roughly translates: guardian spirit that keeps the thoughts
Transliterated it comes out something like Jao Paw Jettakoup
Jao Paw Jettakoup is one of five idols in the City Pillar Shrine in Bangkok.
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| Image credit: http://2g.pantip.com/cafe/gallery/topic/G11881443/G11881443.html |
The job of Jao Paw Jettakoup is to remember all of the bad deeds people have committed and to recite them to the god of hell after the person dies. (It's probably not a good idea to try to bribe him to edit the record.)
Many Buddhists here in Thailand believe in the existence of an account book called the Account of Good Deeds and Account of Sin (บัญชีบุญบัญชีบาป). When a person dies, that account book is opened and the good deeds are weighed against the bad deeds to see what kind of punishment a person will get. They also believe that merit made on behalf of the dead person will be taken into account, which probably accounts for many of the merit-making activities in Buddhist funerals here. (Note: not all Buddhists believe this, some believe one's fate is determined by an automatic cause-and-effect process that does not involve a deity as a judge.)
For most of us, the existence of such a record book would not be a good thing. If the book was something tangible we might go through a lot of effort to seize and destroy the book--or at least edit it--but in the process earn a bunch of entries on the "bad deeds" side.
This is where Good Friday comes in.
By His death on the cross, Jesus is able to take away the sins of those who believe in Him. This is why, when John the Baptist saw Jesus, he cried out, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29) It's as if by submitting to crucifixion, Jesus earned the right to take an eraser to the Account of Sin.
That is Good News! That is why it is called Good Friday.
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| The Cross - Good News for us |
The Lamb of God takes away the sins of the world.
David writes, "as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us." (Psalm 103:12, ESV). Jesus is able to take the one side of the ledger and heave it as far as the east is from the west.
Good News! Good Friday.
When I think about this Buddhist concept of a Book of Deeds, I am reminded of Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13:4. Love, he says, "keeps no record of being wronged".
Jesus tells us that "God is Love."
There is no reason to take an eraser to the Book of Deeds if you don't keep such an account in the first place.
This is what Love does.
This is what God does.
Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. (1 John 4:7-10, NLT)
Good News! Good Friday.
So we compare:
Jao Paw Jettakoup-the one who ensures none of your bad deeds is forgotten.
Jesus Christ-the one who ensures none of your bad deeds is remembered.
Which will you choose?
Good News! Good Friday.
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