2007 Good Friday reflection:
Have you ever wondered why they call it good Friday? When you actually look at the event through the eyes of those who were there, there really wasn’t too much good about it!
Three years of following this man called Jesus. He called himself the Son of Man. He claimed to be equal with God. He taught with authority like no one else. He faced off with the Pharisee’s and Sadducees. He performed jaw-dropping miracles almost on a daily basis.
That was good.
Who else could feed 5,000 with a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish?
Who else had the undivided attention of demons and the unseen realms?
No one else that the disciples knew could call a man three days dead from out of the tomb.
And who would ever forget the very first miracle Jesus performed—the water into wine—man, was that ever a party!
That was good.
But now it is Friday…a day that would some day be called Good Friday. Why? Friday, Jesus was dead. He had been handed over to the Romans to be brutally beaten, shamed, and hung on a criminal’s cross.
People back then thought the conquering Messiah had finally come. No less that a week before crowds had lined the streets to proclaim “Hosanna, hosanna, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.”
And for what? Jesus hadn’t overthrown the overpowering government.
Jesus had just been betrayed. By a close associate. By a friend. And with a kiss. Couldn’t Judas have just pointed from a distance? That way we wouldn’t have known that it was his doing in the Garden of Gethsemane ? Couldn’t he have just told the Roman soldiers what Jesus was wearing and the location he would be. He had eaten dinner with Jesus just a few hours before—Judas would’ve known where Jesus would be.
What’s so good about Friday?
Jesus had told them everything that was going to happen. He told them more than once. “When we get to Jerusalem , the Son of Man will be betrayed to the leading priests and teachers of religious law. They will sentence him to die. Then they will hand him over to the Romans to be mocked, whipped, and crucified…”
The disciples didn’t know what that meant? It sure didn’t fit with the idea they had of a Messiah!
Friday night, Jesus wasn’t in charge. He was dead. Chaos and confusion sat on the throne, not Jesus! All the disciples had scattered. Shoot, one of the closest to Jesus had denied him three times! That’s not good.
Dead. What next? Some could go back to fishing. Levi/Matthew has nothing to go back to—he had turned his back on friends and family when he took the tax-collecting job. Then he turned his back on that lucrative career the day Jesus had called him. And what of the others? What were they going to do?
That Friday wasn’t good at all!
For the disciples, good would have been eating one more meal with Jesus. Good would have been sitting in awe of him after more rough waters on the Sea of Galilee . Good would have been the sounds of a fire crackling with fresh fish roasting on the rocks beside.
But the only sounds that kept ringing in their ears were the sounds of the nails piercing the flesh of Jesus’ hands and feet. It was the sounds of each hammer strike as the stake was driven into the cross.
To the disciples and other followers of Jesus on that day, there was nothing good about Friday.
So I ask again, why call it Good Friday? Maybe it’s good because without remembering Good Friday, you can’t truly celebrate Easter Sunday.