Why is it called Good Friday? It wasn’t good for JESUS. He had been up all night after praying in such anguish that drops of blood fell from his brow and then He was arrested and taken before the High Priest. He was questioned, mocked and accused by the religious leaders and slapped by a soldier. They showed Him no mercy, though they were the moral leaders of the time. What part of this could be called good?
They handed JESUS over to a foreign power that was brutally oppressing their people and made false accusations to convince them to kill Him. He was sent to a despised King, as a political gift, but was returned to the Romans to be judged. Even the brutal foreigner saw through the lies they told and wanted to release Him. Pilate had JESUS savagely flogged, hoping to quench their thirst for blood, but the religious leaders demanded he be crucified. They wanted Him to be publicly shamed and to suffer. The crowd questioned Pilate’s loyalty to Caesar and took the blame on themselves and their children for the death of JESUS. Pilate washed his hands of the blood and turned JESUS over to be crucified. Nothing about that scene was good.
Adding to His misery, JESUS had to carry the cross though the streets to Calvary. His bleeding and battered body finally failed. A bystander was drafted to carry the cross to the final destination. Then the torturous execution began. The soldiers nailed JESUS to the cross so He had to push Himself up to breath. That tore at His bleeding back and pulled against the nails that held Him down. As His strength drained away, JESUS couldn’t raise himself to breath. That definitely wasn’t the good part of that Friday.
It took most of the day for JESUS to die as He hung there in agony, while His Mother and followers wept over his suffering. The religious leaders continued to taunt Him and a thief hanging nearby mocked. Then the worst pain caused Him to cry out “My GOD, why hast thou forsaken me?” When JESUS died, His body was laid in a borrowed tomb as his followers were hiding in fear. What could possibly be good about that Friday?
Actually that Friday wasn’t good. It was good that GOD so loved the world that He gave His only son and that JESUS was good enough to pay for our sins. The day itself was filled with pain, suffering and misery because we needed someone to die for our sins. The good part of that Friday was that JESUS did for us what we are not good enough to do for ourselves. No, that Friday wasn’t good, but GOD is!
Wayne Lance