Why is Good Friday called Good?
The Friday before Easter Sunday is called Good Friday. This day is considered one of the darkest and most painful days in the christian religion. This was a somber day, the day Christ was crucified. There are many names for this day some you may have grown up hearing such as: Holy Friday, Holy and Great Friday, Black Friday, and Great Friday. This day is significant because we as humans hung him on that cross and allowed him to pay for our sins. We allowed him to pay the price of our failures and hurts we have caused. This was the day that He came for. He came down fully knowing that He was going to have to go through the most painful and destructive deaths ever. All of this was done so that we could be with our heavenly father for eternity and death would be defeated once and for all. We are told this multiple times in the bible but I love the way it is written in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4; “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance; that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures”
If you look closely and focus really hard you can see a few drawings. This was a marked game that was used by the roman soldiers to play a game. The game would determine who would be given the “honor” of putting the crown of thrones on Jesus. This game would have been playing about 8 feet from where Jesus would have been in shackles watching.
These were the “stones” that they used to play the above game. There would be 4 types of animals or reptiles and they had to call one out as they threw the stone. Whoever was the closest to what they predicted won. These “stones” were made of pieces of bones.
Christ had a mission when He entered the world as a human. His mission was to take on the sins of the world and die for them, as the most perfect and holy sacrifice, that anyone who comes to Him can go to the Father. He was blameless. If you recall during this time, people had to perform sacrifices of animals in order to repent for their sins. When they did this the animal that was chosen had to be holy, it had to be perfect and have done no wrong. This is one of the reasons Jesus is called the lamb at times. He was sacrificed just as was done with lambs at that time.
This is believed to be where Christ would have been imprisoned. He would have been lowered by a rope and pulley system into the deep darkness of this hole. He would be here until they were ready to bring Him to court in front of Pontius Pilate.
That is the “good”. The good is what was accomplished by the horrific act of crucifixion. It is hard to imagine the good coming from that day when you spend time thinking about what it would actually be like to be crucified. However, Christ did this willingly. He knew we were imperfect people, he knew that we would fail Him and He still went forward with the plan. Christ on that cross was the first importance. Through this, He defeated death. He cleansed us of our sins. He gave us the ability to have a relationship with our heavenly father, the veil was torn. He created the bridge with that cross so that we could join our heavenly father whenever.
This image is where Jesus would have been 8 feet from the soldiers laughing and playing games to decide who gets to “crown” Him. He would have been shackled to the ground just watching and praying with full knowledge and understanding of what is about to happen.
We recently traveled to Israel for a Holy Land trip. We stood on places that Jesus had stood. We walked where He had walked. We went to places where Christ was tormented and made fun of by us. We walked where the hecklers stood. We walked where the soldiers played games to decide who had the opportunity to place the crown of thorns on his head. We walked down Via Dolorosa, the road that He would have had to carry that cross, nearly naked, wiped and bloodied. As He walked carrying a cross, the splinters from the tree that it was made from, stabbing him everywhere, into the sore torn flesh of our Savior. As he continued dragging this tree, His exhaustion would overcome Him at times causing Him to fall the cross smashing Him as he went. He fought through this suffering; Just to get to the top to go through the rest of the crucifiction. All for us.
This is a picture of the street sign for the street “Via Dolorosa”. This would be the street that Christ would carry the cross all the way to where they were planning on crucifying him. The streets were lined with people who heckled Him and threw things at him.
After the Last Supper, Jesus takes a handful of the disciples to go pray. He brings them to a place that we call the Garden of Gethsemane. He asks them to stand watch while He prayed knowing that He had already been betrayed. The Bible tells us Jesus prayed so hard that he was sweating drops of blood. He was praying for an alternative. He was praying for a way out of the crucifixion. However, He knew there wasn’t anything that would stop this mission now. He knew imminently soldiers would show up, Judas betrayed Him and He would be taking to jail. It was all already in the works. He accepted the reality and the pain He was going to face. The physical pain but also the emotional pain as He will be betrayed by those He felt loved by the most. He will be hurt in everyway possible when completing a task to save His accusers.
This is one of the paths in the garden of Gethsemane where Jesus prayed deeply To God. He prayed to His father, begging for an alternative to crucifixion. When the Father told HIm there wasn’t a different way He accepted it. Such a beautiful demonstration of obedience to our heavenly father.
Many may read this and feel that “Good Friday” is an inappropriate name for this day. If that is you, you most certainly are not alone. This is a common feeling. However, just like the Bible everything is about context. This day is good because of what it is accomplishing and will accomplish. This day is good because it completed God’s plan to save his beloved from sin. If you are still struggling to understand how this is good you must first understand the laws of the time and how they separated us from God the Father. Throughout the bible He makes it known how He wants a relationship with us but we broke that ability leaving us hopeless. It is the gospel of Jesus Christ that brings us true salvation. This day is “Good” because it is what brought our connection to God but that doesn’t meant it is not sombering or humbling. This day is to remember that our freedom from sun wasn’t free. It came at a great cost. A cost that we couldn’t have paid even though we should have. Your God loves you THAT much. You are loved so deeply.
The pictures in the gallery above depict multiple things. There are two places that are considered the most likely tomb of Jesus. The first being the Garden tomb, that is the bigger and brighter one you see and the second being the tomb inside the church of the holy sepulchre which look more like caves and tiny inlets. You can also see a great example of what a tomb would have looked like during this time in the picture that has a piece of the highway in it. As you can tell, we dont know the exact location but these give us a pretty good example and understanding of what it may have been like.
Honestly, I think this is the way God would want it. We don’t need to know the exact spot of his burial because we are a fallen people. We would most likely end up idolizing that space more than our God. We can get a beautiful idea of this story and what could have been his resting place for 3 days. From that point on, our God is not in a tomb. Our God is alive. He is not in that tomb, Hallelujah!
