What's So "Good" About Friday?


It’s called “Good Friday.” Doesn’t that seem like a discrepancy to Christians? On a day that brought so much pain and suffering to the man who lived a perfect life, why would it be a good day?

In the days just prior to that fateful Friday, Jesus had been hailed as a king riding triumphantly into Jerusalem. During that week He loved … taught … served… prayed … and then was arrested. On that day that we call “good” Jesus was betrayed … tried … beaten … mocked … and then crucified on a cross. What makes that a “good” Friday?

A good Friday in our minds is when the work week is over and the weekend begins. We may have special things planned or nothing at all, but we always look forward to the end of the week.
On that historic Friday, I don’t think Jesus was feeling like it was a good day. His disciples probably weren’t feeling very good about the day either; after all they had scattered and lied about even knowing who Jesus was. His other followers may have watched with agony as the man who had healed them and shown them how to live and know God was nailed to a cross so they didn’t really feel good about the day either. 

In my estimation the only people who really felt good about that Friday were the religious leaders who believed they were getting rid of Him once and for all. They thought they had won, but they had not.

That’s why we can call it “Good Friday.” Yes Jesus had been put to death, but it was not a needless death. It was a death for every person. Jesus chose to lay His hands on the wood and allow the Roman soldiers to nail my sins and yours to the cross. Friday is good because Jesus did what should have happened to me. I deserved the penalty of death, but instead because of what Jesus did on Friday, I can have abundant life now … I can know God … and I will someday go to heaven and be able to live for all eternity with my Savior. That’s why it’s good, Jesus finished what His Father sent Him to do.

Romans 5:7-8 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

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