Tomorrow is
Good Friday, a religious holiday observed primarily by Christians commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his death at Calvary. You can get a full explanation of
the holiday here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Friday
I’ve been a
Christian my whole life… or at least as far back as I can remember. I know what
Good Friday commemorates, but I have always been hung up on the word “Good” as
part of the holiday’s title.I understand that for Christians, it was technically a good day. In fact, for all of humanity it was a good day, because with the death of one man, it freed us of all our sin. No more would we be burdened with the need to sacrifice lambs for their sins… it was now all paid in full.
Good for us.
Not so good
for Jesus as he bled and died the most painful of deaths.
It doesn’t
seem like it would have been a good day for the apostles either. I’ve read many
fictionalized accounts of this important day and I’ve pondered what it would
have meant to be there, beneath the cross as my beloved mentor and friend struggled
with the pain. It’s hard for me to watch those shows on T.V. where people get
accidentally hurt. It’s hard for me to go into hospitals and nursing homes.
It’s hard for me to look at the face of a loved one who is ill. How could I
have stood there and watched the unspeakable agony of pain and death as it cut
through Jesus’ body?
Certainly
that would not have felt like a good day.
Our pastor
recently spoke on the Fruits of the Spirit and focused one Sunday on goodness.
In his sermon he mentioned that in Jewish tradition the title “The Good” was a
title reserved for God. So people would not have been referred to as “good” and
certainly a day would not have been deemed “good.” It was a word used for a
much higher entity. Yet, today, we use the word “good” very often. Everything,
it seems, is “good”: “Oh, this soup is good” or “How are you? I’m good.” It has
become commonplace.
Of course, the event is not titled “Good
Friday” in the bible. From what I can discern from my research it was probably
the Roman Catholic Church that titled the day “Good Friday” because it leads
into the day when Jesus rose from the dead.
About.com has this to say:
The Baltimore Catechism declares that Good Friday is called good because
Christ, by His Death, "showed His great love for man, and purchased for
him every blessing." Good, in this sense, means "holy," and indeed Good Friday is known
as Holy and Great Friday among Eastern Christians, both Catholic and Orthodox. Thus
the answer given by the Baltimore Catechism seems a good explanation, except
for the fact that Good Friday is called good only in English. In its entry on
Good Friday, the Catholic Encyclopedia notes that:
The
origin of the term Good is not clear. Some say it is from
"God's Friday" (Gottes Freitag); others maintain that it is from the German Gute Freitag, and
not specially English. Sometimes, too, the day was called Long Friday by the Anglo-Saxons; so today in
Denmark.
If
Good Friday were called good because English adopted the German phrase, then we
would expect Gute Freitag to be the common German name for Good Friday,
but it is not. Instead, Germans refer to Good Friday as Karfreitag—that
is, Sorrowful or Suffering Friday—in German.
So,
in the end, the historical origins of why Good Friday is called Good Friday
remain unclear, but the theological reason is very likely the one expressed by
the Baltimore Catechism: Good Friday is good because the death of Christ, as
terrible as it was, led to the Resurrection on Easter Sunday, which brought new life
to those who believe.
I have to admit… I’m with the Germans on this one—I think Sorrowful Friday is a better title. But it did lead to the Resurrection and so I can see that point too… now that I can see the big picture, of course.
On this “Good” Friday I would like for you to consider how it must have
felt for Jesus’ friends to see him up on that cross. How it would have felt for
his mother watching from the ground. I think it’s important for us to consider
how it was in that moment. They
didn’t know he would rise from the dead, despite Him repeatedly telling them
that He would rise. They didn’t know that three days later they would be
celebrating once again with him. They just saw his excruciating pain and
suffering. If we don’t think about that moment,
I think it can lose its powerful message. Do we truly understand what had to
happen for us to be free from our sins? Although Sunday will certainly be a
“good” day… let’s not forget what had to happen to get there.
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