What's So Good About Good Friday?

Have you ever wondered why Good Friday is called Good Friday? A google search, which can be helpful and misleading at the same time revealed a few things. One plausible reason is that the original English word “Good” carries the same meaning as Holy, and Church tradition considers Good Friday as Holy Friday.

As a child, I remember wondering how anyone can see any good in the day Jesus, an innocent, holy and righteous man was brutally killed. Surely it was a sad day when it actually happened and every time the story was told in Sunday School it was still sad. So, what is good about Good Friday?

When you look at the cross, what do you see? An object of cruelty. An ugly design of mankind to exert the worst kind of slow and excruciatingly painful death. A symbol of wrath and judgement. Yet, when you look again, you fix your gaze, you linger, you look through the cross, you look past the cross, what do you see? Love! Love, the unimaginable kind. Underserved, inexplicable love, not a bit of it, but lavished, poured out immeasurable, unrepayable, priceless love of God.

Please read this biblical text: “So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So, God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.” (Romans 8:1-4, NLT).

Good Friday is good because God made something good come out of something bad. Good Friday was not good to Jesus, but it was good for Him. In going to the cross, He fulfilled the will of His Father. That’s Good. “Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” (Luke 22:42, NLT). That an innocent man was killed, that’s bad. But that His death meant freedom for us, from the power of sin that leads to death, that’s good. In that He defeated death by His death and resurrection, that’s good. To conquer death, He had to die, and there can be no resurrection without dying. That His death made a way for His resurrection, and by extension gives us the assurance and a sure hope of resurrection, that’s good.

“He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all - how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32, NIV). If God gave us His most valuable treasure, His Son, what does that say about how he feels about us? Does that not mean we are eternally valuable to Him? Isn’t that good for us? Of course, that’s amazingly good. Think about it, you and I, as fallible, broken and feeble as we are, God values us to the extent that He won’t let us completely make a mess of our lives. He made a way of escape.

As we look forward to Good Friday, let’s be grateful, let’s be thankful, let us fall on our kneels in adoration of this good God, who did everything for our good. And even when we go through phases of life that are not good to us, let’s consider that perhaps in His sovereignty, He has allowed it because it’s good for us. And that a time will come, that the pain of death will give way to the joy of resurrection, when new life begins.

Without the Friday, we can’t have the Sunday, so we have to describe the Friday, in light of the glory it bears, not the pain it embodies. It’s the retrospective benefit the Friday brought that confers the adjective “Good” on it. The resurrection on Easter Sunday, is what sheds a new perspective on how we define Friday. Easter Sunday is why we call Good Friday, Good.

“Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2, NIV). Lord, help our brothers and sisters in Ukraine and other war-torn nations to fix their eyes on you this Good Friday. May they see the joy that Easter brings, and draw strength of the Friday, for the joy of the resurrection to come. May those in our churches and nation in grief and pain, see the hope that you promise, and be comforted in the hope of a better and glorious tomorrow. Amen!