What makes this Friday so 'good'?
'After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), "I thirst." A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, "It is finished," and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. '
John 19:28-30
Here we see Jesus, the one they called The Christ (meaning, "Messiah, the promised one to deliver the Jews") hanging on a cross, dying. He was supposed to be the victor. He was supposed to be the king... The ministry of Jesus was never thought highly of by the religious authorities. It finally caught up with Him. He was executed between two thieves. This was not a good Friday. Everything looked like it was going wrong.
Then why do we call the day that Jesus was executed Good Friday?
For some of you who were raised in the Church, the term Good Friday probably seems totally normal. My hope is that you'll think about it in a new way. Ask yourself, "Why is this good?"
There are two things I want to share with you about this today. The first is this: good didn't originally mean good in this context. Let me explain.
Good Friday is a bit of an anomaly. It is the only Christian holiday that still is referred to with the word good. There were actually a couple other goods: good Wednesday (the Wednesday before Easter) and good tide (a greeting near Christmas time and Shrove Tuesday) are prime examples. In these cases (and on Good Friday), good is meant to designate the day or season as a holy time. Good Friday is Holy Friday. It may have even morphed form God's Friday into what we call it today.
Does that mean it's not really good in the way we think of the word today? Actually, no. In fact, one of the earliest uses of the term was in 1290 as guode Friday. Good Friday is good because on that day Christ "showed His great love for man, and purchased for him every blessing" (US Catholic school text).
Yes, the crucifixion of Jesus from Nazareth was a terrible day. Satan was rejoicing. God was dead. But, that fateful Friday is good. Through that event we have been given every blessing! We have been healed.
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
1 Peter 2:24What really happened that Friday evening was that Jesus was making himself a sacrifice to appeal to the Father so that our sins could be placed on Him, and forgiven. That's the thing about Good Friday:
Good Friday was both horrifying and heroic, tragedy and triumph.Thankfully, we know that a few days later Jesus proved his deity by rising from the dead, defeating not just our sin on the cross, but also the sting of death. Because of that we can have confidence that our sins were put to death on the cross and...
We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
Romans 6:4This Good Friday, remember that the goodness and new life you received from Jesus was purchased on a day that was anything but good at the time. But that's how much Jesus loves you. And that is certainly for our good.