Today is Good Friday in all of Christendom which is the remembrance of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Jesus had been dragged through the streets, carrying his cross, while spectators stood and watched, some jeering, some sorrowful, some merely curious. One bystander actually went up to Jesus to help him lift the cross from his back to carry it for him but he was forced to let Jesus continue his foot journey through Jerusalem to reach the cross at Golgotha whereupon he was bound to the cross by nails to die slowly, agonizingly while his staunch supporters, friends and family, looked on in misery to witness the slow death of their beloved son and teacher.
Years later, centuries in fact, Marie Antoinette likewise was hauled across Paris in a cart before jeering spectators, some again sympathetic, some hating and despising her, and some merely curious, wishing to see the ill-fated queen in her journey through town, resembling a bit that same Jesus who had been dragged through Jerusalem to his death.
Jesus, after spending hours on the cross, finally succumbed, and was taken down, and handled roughly by the soldiers who turned him over to his friends and family. They. cared for him lovingly, and tenderly took him to a cave wherein he was laid out to have angels later dress him for his emergence from the tomb. A rock had been placed upon the entry so that noone could steal him away.
Sadly, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, many years later, did not have that same loving touch from their friends and family who could give them proper burial and care. Instead after having been dragged through town,the former queen had to step up onto the platform which held the most horrendous sight in all of Paris, the grand guillotine which would end their lives in a matter of seconds. At least, the French were a bit kinder than the Romans and the Jews who had demanded the death of Jesus instead of Barabas, in that as soon as Queen Marie Antoinette stepped onto the platform, all she had to do was to place her head carefully upon the plate that supported her head so that the huge razor sharp instrument could quickly sever her pretty little head from her body. In an instant, shortly after she apologized for stepping on the foot of the executioner, she was summarily decapitated. The crowd cheered, and her body and head were carelessly and indifferently thrown into a pile where it lay for days before anyone bothered to dispose of it properly.
Jesus lay in his tomb for three days. It was a tomb carefully prepared for him, a cave in a sense, to fulfill his own prophecy that within three days he would be raised from the dead and return to the living.
Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette made no such promises, and so their bodies lay neglected for some time before anyone even tended to them at all.
On the third day, after Jesus had been resuscitated from his temporary death, the tomb appeared to be open as the rock had rolled away. An angel greeted the first onlookers. Jesus appeared to his friends who came to seek him and were so amazed to see him reappear as he looked much the same as he had looked before his dreadful scourging and crucifixion. He had been restored to life by angels who tended to him and so his wounds had mended but remained in sight long enough to show them to his disciple Thomas who had doubted the news of his reappearance.
King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette remained in dire neglect.
Jesus's story became known amongst his following, and the church today will continue to celebrate the story of His Resurrection this coming Easter Sunday and Christians worldwide will rejoice that Jesus lives. Hallelujah!
King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette will not be remembered by many since their deaths created a change in the life and government of the newly created republic of France. Yet, thanks to time passing, generations of young French children studying the history of France will possibly realize that just as Jesus had suffered many years ago, being ridiculed as the King of the Jews, the King and Queen of France suffered a similar act that changed the lives of Frenchmen forever.
King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette were good Catholics who practiced their faith in Jesus so that just as he laid his life down for all of mankind, they were forced to give up their lives for their countrymen. Young Christians, Catholic and Protestants, can take hope in the fact that since the death of the King and Queen, France has recovered sensibility since the madness that besieged them. Unlike Jerusalem today which remains divided, France is a nation now a republic that is at peace with itself and its horrendous past. No, a king and queen will not be restored to France, but Christians in France can enjoy the victory of Christ over death which likewise promises the victory of the king and queen who believed in Jesus themselves.
Thank Heaven that reenactments of the deaths of King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette are not practiced in France in the manner in which reenactments of Jesus Christ are often practiced in the world today.
The important message of Jesus's death is that through obedience to the Father that dwelled within him he was brought back to life to testify to the truth of the power of the spirit over the flesh. As he had promised, he was raised from the dead three days after his expiring on the cross.
What does all this mean? It means that the spiritual life that is within the temporal body, the physical flesh, survives.
It is a matter of faith. It is a matter of history that these events occurred. The faith is dependent upon the need to know the truth. By thy faith thou art cured, Jesus had taught. By faith alone, the Church, the spiritual followers of Christ have grown and prospered.
It is Good Friday, a day to be remembered. As it happened to Jesus, it would happen again and again throughout time to others...King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette are amongst the many who later also suffered the same fate.
Life goes on. Live it in faith and in love towards one another...
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