Plenty of people wonder why it is that Good Friday is called Good Friday. Have you ever thought about this, as the son of God was murdered on that day?
Good Friday occurs on the Friday before Easter. Labeling and even celebrating such an atrocity as something good could be seen as conflicting, or even sick, to those who simply don’t understand.
The truth is, embedded in the word “good” is both savage wickedness and indescribable love. The wickedness of man, in an essence, is devoured by the unyielding love of Jesus Christ and of God — one for the other and both for humanity.
In his complete act of obedience, Jesus willingly surrendered his life to God as commanded by Him. He did so to lay the path then, but also reveal the path forward for mankind to find true salvation.
In his selfless act of utter surrender — amid all of the trauma, pain and resignation — Jesus revealed the way.
It doesn’t come easily or rid us of our human frailties. That’s the hurdle we humans must willingly and actively overcome to find salvation. God wants us to put him first, above everything else, including our worst demons.
The premeditated murder delivered by the Pharisees unto Jesus Christ was actually a predestined sacrifice, transforming death into life through absolute belief and willing surrender.
In the Youtube video titled “Why I Call It Good Friday,” the creator, Igniter Media, describes the significance of Good Friday as the one day God made that affects all of eternity.
Jesus being tasked with willingly dying to find eternal life is symbolic as much as it is a historical event. It demonstrates the path that we must all follow, Christian and otherwise, to find eternal life.
“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” — John 14:6 NIV.
In other words, mimic what I did, and you will have salvation, which doesn’t mean literally hang yourself on a cross to your death. It means, allow your fallible, fearful, ego-driven, flesh-laden self to die and be reborn in Him. Then keep Him first in all that you do.
Jesus endured a horrific death by man’s standards. But the reason he did so was deliberate and good.
American Reformed theologian and ordained pastor R.C. Sproul explains why we don’t call Good Friday ‘bad’ Friday this way, “We don’t call it ‘bad’ Friday because what God wrought in that action was the greatest good in the history of the world.”
It’s hard to explain Good Friday any better than that.
