"On Good Friday"

One interesting aspect of learning French is the set of faux amis (“false friends”), words that either look like their English equivalents but have sharply different meanings or words for which the direct English translation doesn’t capture the sense of the French.  For instance, the verb gagner normally means “to win,” for instance a prize or the lottery; “to earn” (gagner son pain is slang for “to earn a living”); or “to obtain” the object of one’s desire, as in English we say “to win someone’s heart.”  But I remember learning another meaning as well from older and very literary French:  “Nous avons gagné Pâques” may be translated as “we have reached Easter” in the sense of “it was Easter” or “Easter was upon us.”  A machine translation might read “We have won Easter” – but that’s why this is considered a faux ami.

Surely, though, the faux ami translation is absolutely right from the Christian perspective.  It contains a profound truth:  we have “won” Easter, in God’s triumph over death through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.  We didn’t “merit” it (another meaning of gagner), but we have won it all the same through the work of Christ.  God gave, and we won.  And it is a special kind of victory.  Think of Mary and the first disciples.  As the idea of the Resurrection gradually became more clear to them, they had the sense of victory, and their celebration was all the more joyful because it was so unexpected – as ours should be.

The French language knows all this, too, which is why gagner le paradis means “to go to heaven.”  As we shall, thanks to Christ’s victory.  “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”(Romans 6:23, ESV)  And gagner is also a hunting term, presenting a wonderful picture of God pursuing us so far as to send His Son, Jesus, because He wanted to restore fellowship with His children.

Stuart Townend sums it up so well in his song “See, What a Morning”:

And we are raised with Him/ Death is dead/ Love has won/ Christ has conquered!  And we shall reign with Him,/ For He lives/ Christ is risen from the dead!

My best wishes for a blessed Easter as we celebrate God’s victory that became our victory.  We have won Easter, indeed – and Jesus is our truest friend.