Time … 7:30am
For this Easter weekend, we went to Davao to time a visit with a former teammate, Edna, who is now serving with the Free Methodist in Hong Kong. Driving from Cotabato City on a Good Friday was supposed to be a quick trip with hardly any traffic on the road. Sure enough, the traffic was non-existent. But halfway though our trip, our 660cc “super-mini” van apparently blew a radiator hose (unknown to us then). So, a 4-hr trip became a 7-hr “self-pity” ordeal of stop and go as we had to cool off the engine and drove 20km each time before we had to cool off the vehicle again. We couldn’t even consider stopping for the evening because the car repair shops won’t open until Monday and there were no nearby hotels or inns to check in. Then, through it all, the superstitious part of me mocked myself, “This is what you get for driving on a Good Friday. This is sinful. This is now your punishment. Tolerate the imposed penitence.”
Time … 2:30pm
Finally arrived at our place of accommodation. Engine still intact and just in time before it reached the HOT end of the temperature gauge. The superstitious part of me turned into the theologizing part but the mocking continued, “Well, it rains on the good and the evil. It’s Good Friday, so just be happy Jesus is your friend and your sin is forgiven .” Still I felt “out of sorts” that I was being punished for nothing.
Time … 9:30pm
After a good visit with Edna at her mom’s house in the south-eastern end of Davao, we waited for a taxi. But being Good Friday, we shouldn’t be surprised that there was hardly any. We decided to take a public transpo (i.e., jeepney). There were only 5 passengers in the jeepney. It just happened one of them was Dodong, a street youth we met when we’re involved in street-level ministry in Davao (2005-2010). Dodong used to watch parked cars in the downtown area and receive small tips for the service. He recognized me and immediately he told me of his “Good Friday” nightmare!
“Six months ago, I was hired by this cop to work for him in Tagum (a small city about an hour and half east of Davao City). He promised me a good job. Well, I ended up washing cars. I was supposed to get 30pesos per 100pesos car wash. He never paid me my wage. I used the tips I got to buy my meals and I slept on the streets as usual. Finally, I decided this morning that I’ve had enough. I didn’t want to be a victim to this cop anymore. My friend here (sitting next to him) worked with me and decided to come with me, while my friend there (at the front) was good enough to help us with our fare from Tagum. I’d rather ‘watch cars” again than stay enslaved by that cop.”
Quite shocked by his news, all I could muster was, “Have you had anything to eat today?”
His quick reply, “We haven’t eaten at all today.”
He continued, “You guys are not like that cop. You’re always good to us.”
When we got off the jeepney, I handed him some money to buy food and pay his fare.
11:30pm
As I turned off for the evening and went to bed, Dodong’s last words kept repeating itself, “You were good to us.”
He didn’t say, “I wish you were still with us.”
He didn’t say, “I missed you guys.”
He didn’t say, “I wish it was like the old times.”
Rather, “You were good to us.”
Then, it dawned on me.
He was telling me a story.
It was about how he remembers our team when we were with him and the other street youth.
Our story in his “broken” street life is a remembrance of good.
As for me, with Good Friday coming to an end,
I was reminded that Jesus in my life is about God pronuncing to me, “You are good.”
Perhaps, Good Friday is not about the death of God in Jesus’s humanity after all.
Rather, it’s the advent of pronuncing over and over again to His creation
that through the humanity of Jesus which culminated at his death on the cross,
“all my creation is good.”
Our 660cc “super-mini” van is still waiting to be fixed. It is still broken.
But God’s creation, no matter how broken we may be,
you and me,
because Jesus “did good” on this Good Friday, “we’re good.”
Before dozing off, I remembered a song we were listening to just before our vehicle started to break down …
“You are good,
you are good,
and your love endures forever,
Jesus, friend of sinners …” (by Casting Crowns)
Happy Easter Sunday to all!
May the goodness of God be your testimony because of whatever evil that Jesus experienced on the cross.
Out of chaos of nothingness, He created.
And his creation were all good.
Out of the chaos of death, She re-created.
And she pronounced, “You are good.”
eacoba 