What’s So Good about Good Friday?

I don’t like Good Friday. If any day should be called Black Friday*, it’s this day…

when Jesus, the Christ, had willingly walked into the clutches of His desperate and vindictive enemies,

when the Prince of Peace climbed onto a torture rack and endured hours of excruciating pain before finally releasing His Spirit,

when Messiah himself hung up there deserted by those He claimed as followers—nay, friends and confidants (John 15:15),

when even His Father turned away from Him, the Son of God.

I’m told we call it Good Friday because His experience freed us from all the penalties we so aptly deserve. That’s seems incredibly human-centric (the en masse version of self-centered). That day was anything but good. No one there thought it was good except the pawns of Satan who facilitated it. Not even the Roman soldiers.

Isn’t it a little like the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Those events led directly to the end of World War II in the Pacific, yet we would never call them or their anniversaries good. And just yesterday (4/13/2017), the US dropped the largest non-nuclear bomb ever deployed. I doubt many Afghanis think it was a good day.

Perhaps we could call the evening good, when He was finally dead and free from the pain, humiliation, and isolation of the worst day in history. For me, death isn’t the scary thing; it’s dying that frightens me.

Now Sunday: Sunday is the so-good-it-makes-me-whoop day! On Sunday, the victory is clear, the Savior is risen, and evil, which has battled since the Garden of Eden, is conquered forever. I know it doesn’t look like it right now, but Victory has already been declared.

At the end of World War II (Don’t know why I’m thinking WWII!), some regiments hadn’t heard about the armistice yet and continued to fight. We live in days like those, when Satan refuses to accept defeat. But his surrender is already written in Jesus’ blood.

Let’s face the facts about Good Friday. What’s so good about it? (click to tweet)

Honestly, I don’t even like to think about the crucifixion, so I’ve never written about it before. If you want more from me today, check out one of these posts about events surrounding Jesus’ last days as the God-Man:

• The Day the King Cried is about Palm Sunday.
• Two posts reflect on Jesus and the disciples as He washed their feet during the Passover meal: Who’s Humble Now? and The Error in the ‘I’.
• One of my earliest posts, which continues to convict me today, examines Peter’s triple denial of Jesus: Rethinking Peter’s Denial.
• Four posts dig into events in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before Jesus died: Two Questions About Your Calling, Fight, Flight, or Follow, Help! I don’t even know how to pray, and The Spiral Slide of Temptation.
• Faith Has No Formula looks at five individuals who encountered Jesus after He arose. This would be a good one for Sunday, if you’d like to use it as a devotional.

I’m enduring “Good” Friday and looking forward to a great Easter Sunday! What about you? I’d like to know what you’re thinking after reading this. Feel free to leave a comment below.

*Note to all accountants and economists: Yes, I know what Black Friday really means, and I think that day is mislabeled as well. But we’ll save that conversation for November.