What’s So ‘Good’ about ‘Good Friday?’

[This first appeared at LifeChurchNC.com]

March 25, 2016

What’s so good about Good Friday? Really.

The description of this day seems no less an oxymoron. And I suppose the longer you’ve attended church or been a Christian, the less you consider its absurdity. But think about it for a moment: What’s so good about a day commemorating the death of Jesus?

There are plenty of things in life we celebrate, commemorate, and engage in where we seldom think about the significance behind why we’re doing what we’re doing. Hence, this is why the saying is so true, that familiarity breeds contempt.

So, back to the question: What’s so good about Good Friday?

Are we happy Jesus died; and not just died, but was brutally beaten and nailed to an execution stake? Are we saying that death is good? Aren’t we over-romanticizing the Cross a bit to call this day good? I mean, what kind of sick, twisted people are we? No wonder people think Christians are weird, right?

And yet, it’s our weirdnesses, our sicknesses and all that’s twisted about us that makes Good Friday truly good for us. Because although Good Friday represents the pain, suffering and death of Jesus – which by no means was good in itself – it also represents the culmination of God’s redemptive plan that was set in motion at the beginning of time; a plan to rescue us from the inherent sinfulness of our humanity that plagues our existence and the death it has inevitably created for us. Good Friday represents the final death-blow to the forces of darkness and the power of sin and death.

Good Friday represents the death of Death. Just as Jesus represents life to us, He represents death to Death.

Without Good Friday, the Good News wouldn’t be good news.

Good Friday is the day that Jesus, the perfect Son of God, made Himself the once-and-for-all atoning sacrifice for sin for those who put their faith in Him. On the Cross, Jesus absorbed the wrath of God’s justice on sin and set us free from the consequences of our sin, which is death – in all its forms (Romans 6:23) On Good Friday, Justice and Mercy met at the Cross…and Mercy triumphed. (James 2:12-13)

It’s good because we have a Good Father who gave us the gift of His Son, and Who initiated our rescue in the midst of our desperation even before we knew how desperate we were. (Romans 5:8)

And it’s good because we know that Friday isn’t the end of the story.

Because Sunday’s coming…