Here we are again gathered for what we call a “Good Friday” service. I’ve always thought as a kid and even into young adulthood that it was such an odd name for this day. After all what happened on that day in so many ways wasn’t good, it was a tragedy. There was an innocent man railroaded. A man who not only never truly saw justice on that day, but was treated like a savage and a worthless animal. There was tremendous fear on that day for those who were close to Jesus. Would they be next? There were those who just knew that Jesus was going to be their conquering hero who would save them from Rome. But how could He be that person since he allowed himself to be taken captive? There was disillusionment that turned to anger there. Many of them would turn against Jesus when He didn’t fit their expectation of them. How could this be a day that we refer to as good. In other countries there are different names for this day. On the surface I can understand the names they have given it better than our own. For instance, in those countries like Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland they refer to it as “Long Friday.” For a lot of people that experienced that day I can only imagine that they felt like this day would never come to an end. I can see how someone would refer to it as “Long Friday.” Then in Germany it is referred to by some as “Friday of Mourning.” I can certainly understand that title for the day. The events of that day left a lot of people devastated, just totally devastated. Not only did they feel like their hopes and dreams had been smashed. But their Savior, Jesus, the man they had spent so much time with and loved was now dead. There was definitely a sense of mourning there. Now there are other countries and names that they have as well. In many Latin Countries and some others they refer to it as “Holy Friday.” But how do we get the name “Good Friday.” Some think it was a bad translation and it should have been God’s Friday. There are different theories on how we ended up with the name “Good Friday.” But is it possible that a day so brutal, a day filled with such injustice, can really be called good? I think we can look at this day and see good. So tonight I want to look at four reasons why we call it Good Friday.
Like we said that day was a brutal and difficult day. If we look back at the gospel accounts, we know that Jesus was mocked and made fun of. He was hung on a cross between two thieves, He who has never sinned, hanging on a cross between two common criminals with one of them hurling insults at Him and mocking Him as well. When you look at other portions of scripture from the gospel we know that He was spit on. Some people struck Him with their fists, others even slapped Him. We know that he was flogged. What does it mean to be flogged? He was beaten with a whip that had nine lashes with sharp objects on the end of them that rip into the flesh. It’s so brutal that many never make it past that point. They die from the injuries of the flogging. We know that He had a crown of thorns placed on His head and the Roman soldiers beat Jesus on the head driving those thorns into His head. So you ask, “How can that be good?” It gave us a glimpse of just how good God’s love really is. We know that Jesus didn’t have to endure this. He could have chosen to keep His place next to the Father and never leave the comfort of Heaven. But love wouldn’t allow Him to do that. He could have called down angels from heaven to deliver Him from this painful ordeal that He was going through. But He never once cried “uncle.” His love for you and I wouldn’t allow Him to. He had to die on that cross for the plan to be complete, a plan that was based on love. You know the amazing thing about His love, is that He knew many of us would disappoint Him. Many people that He died for could care less right now about what He did on the cross for them. Yet He died for them as well. Paul speaks it so eloquently in Romans 5:7,8. “Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” It’s a lot easier to die for a great person, a person of outstanding stature. But to die for people who are sinners, I don’t think many of us could even imagine it. Yet, Christ died for sinners. He died for each and every person. I don’t know about you, but I look at the mistakes that I have made in my life and I can’t imagine why anyone would die for me. Yet for some reason Christ did. It’s called an incredible love. God’s love is so deep and incredible that many times even believers struggle to know just how deep His love really is. One of the great prayers that Paul writes in the scriptures is a prayer that He had for the Ephesians. Listen to part of that prayer in Ephesians 3:17,18. Starting in the middle of verse 17 it reads, “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have the power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.” God’s love runs so deep it’s hard to fathom. Paul wanted more than anything for those at Ephesus to realize just how much God truly loved them. There are many Christians today who struggle with just how much God really loves us. There are many believers who have this concept of God as someone who is just waiting for you to mess up and when you do He is taking your salvation back right then and there on the spot. How could a God who went through everything that He did on that day for your salvation, just be waiting for you to mess up so He could take it back. When we mess up God loves us so much that He seeks to draw us back to Him. How else can you explain the fact that Jesus says I will leave the ninety-nine sheep to go looking for that one. Why else would He give us His Holy Spirit to convict us and help us to know that we need to repent. That Good Friday gives us an incredible picture of God’s love for us. God’s love is not only good, it goes way beyond good. How else could someone go through so much for someone? It had to be love.
Not only did that day give us a glimpse of God’s good love, but it was good in another way as well. It was the day’s events that gave us God’s good salvation. Without that day our sins aren’t paid for, plain and simple. Without that day we still have a gulf between God and us. It was Christ on that very day that laid His body down for us and became a bridge that enabled us to have fellowship with God again. Listen to John 19:30 as it records the very last words of Jesus on the cross. It says, “When he had received the drink, Jesus said, ‘It is finished.’ With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” What did Jesus mean when He said that it was finished? I believe He meant that He had fulfilled all that His Father had asked Him to do. All of the prophecy was now fulfilled. Everything from the beatings that day to the soldiers casting lots for His clothes to the fact that they didn’t break His legs on the cross like they normally do was prophesied and now completed on that day. But not only those things, most importantly, God’s plan of salvation was complete. Jesus actually took the weight of the sins of the world upon Himself on that cross and His blood was shed in the place of ours and the price of those sins have now been paid. The sacrifice that paid it all was finished on that day. Paul so adequately describes what was accomplished that day in Colossians 2:13,14. He writes, “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.” Today, those who put their trust in Him are alive in Christ. But just how good is that salvation that is given to us in Christ? This is how good it is, we are saved in faith through grace. There is absolutely not one thing we can ever do in this lifetime that will enable us to earn our way to heaven. How great is that! It is literally a gift! Now some people say, well that just doesn’t sound right. You have to do something to earn it, it can’t be just given away. Well, the truth is, when you give your heart to Christ it will change your life. Christ will begin to work on you through the Holy Spirit and change your heart. You will do good and maybe even great things for kingdom of God. But those things will not be what saves you. What saves you is when you ask for the forgiveness of your sins and you put your trust in Christ to be your savior. That salvation brings you fellowship with the creator of the universe. You and the one who created the world and everything in it, able to spend time together and to fellowship together. That is what this good salvation accomplishes. But not only that, through this good salvation we have a home with God where we can spend eternity with Him when our time here is through. This good salvation is only possible because of what Christ went through on that day. Jesus said, “Father, if there is any way we can do this a different way, let’s do it.” But God the Father was clear to Jesus, the plan must go forward on that very day. That day was a good day, because you and I were made alive in Christ.
I believe there is something else that this dark day reveals about our God. It gave us a picture of how God takes tragedy and turns it to good. As devastating as that day was to the hopes and dreams of so many people it was only a short time later, three days to be exact, that we saw God take the tragedy and bring something tremendous out of it. Jesus alluded to it with the disciples right before everything went down, even though in their grief they must not have recalled what He said. Listen to what Jesus said to them according to John 16:19,20. “Jesus saw that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, ‘Are you asking one another what I meant when I said, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me’? I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.” Jesus knew that though their hearts were going to be broken when He was crucified He also knew that their hearts would be overjoyed when they later would see Him resurrected. Their hope was restored, but even more than that. These disciples who seemed to be weak and scared, later, would not only be filled with joy but a new boldness that they had never experienced before. They became disciples who didn’t care if they went to prison for the name of Jesus. They became disciples who considered it an honor to die for the name of Jesus. There was hope and joy among the people again. Everything was different after God took tragedy and turned it to triumph. God took the bad and turned it to good. On that day so long ago we saw the tragedy that was everywhere on that day, but then we later saw what God could do with it. We serve the same God today! Our God can take any tragedy in our life and work it to our good. It’s a promise in His Word. I think we all know the verse I’m talking about. Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to His purpose.” God is a God who does not change and throughout history we can see where God has taken tragedy and brought good things out of them. Joseph can testify to it. Here is a man who went through difficult times that none of us could even imagine. He was thrown down a well by his own brothers and then sold into slavery. Later he is thrown into prison for doing the right thing. Potipher’s wife tries to seduce him and he rejects her advances. She lies and makes up a story and the next thing Joseph knows he is making license plates. But Joseph still trusted God through the storms of His life. Low and behold if God didn’t take Joseph from the lowest points of His life and use it to put Joseph in a position of leadership over the land and He ended up being responsible for saving the nation of Israel. Joseph later told his brothers, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” That is the kind of God that we serve. No matter what we are going through, we have the promise that God will use it to benefit us, some how someway. One of my favorite verses is what James says in James 1:2-4. “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” Whenever the storms come, take heart and know that God is going to do something good. Good Friday is good, because through those tragedies of that day we saw God do something unbelievably great!
There is one other thing that I see that makes that Friday “Good Friday.” It gave us an up close look at how good God’s forgiveness is. When you go back and look at the book of Luke, in part of the account of what happened on the cross we see an awesome picture of the forgiveness of God in two places. Let’s look at Luke 23:33,34 where Luke writes, “When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals--one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.’ And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.” Jesus is asking for the forgiveness of the very men who are mocking Him and torturing Him. How good is that when it comes to forgiveness. I have heard it said by many people, Christians included that I can’t forgive them if they don’t ask for it. I believe this right here shoots down that theory. No where do I see in the scriptures where these men asked to be forgiven for anything that they had done. As a matter of fact, not only were they not sorry but they were still in the process of mistreating Him. Yet, Jesus was asking the Father to forgive them. Now I know repenting of our sins is the key to salvation. But that Jesus had a heart that was asking for forgiveness for the very people who was in the process of taking His life is just an unbelievable picture of God’s forgiveness. If we are to become more and more in the image of Christ what does that say about the way that we are to forgive people. We struggle to forgive people when they have hurt us or disappoint us and many times we refuse to let go of it. We hang on to the hurt and the resentment and after a while if you don’t learn to let go of it, it begins to color your world. We think we are somehow hurting people by refusing to forgive them, when in reality it is ourselves that we are hurting the most. But how many of us would begin to express forgiveness for someone when we knew that they weren’t even sorry? I would dare to say that not many of us would, it goes so much against the grain of our human nature. Yet, we are called to imitate Christ in every area of our life and not just the areas that we are comfortable with. Yet this is not the only picture we get of the forgiveness of God. Now let’s look at Luke 23:39-42. “One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: ‘Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!’ But the other criminal rebuked him. ‘Don’t you fear God,’ he said, ‘since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus answered him, ‘I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.’ ” Jesus was hanging in between two men who deserved to be on the cross. They were criminals and had done terrible things. They had lived their life in such a way that it had been wasted. Yet at the last possible moment, with one of the criminals there was remorse and a recognition of just who Jesus really was. Jesus gave Him an eternal home in Heaven, other words, forgiveness of the things he had done and all the ways that he had wasted his life. God’s forgiveness is so great, that no matter at what point in our life it is, when we come to Him in repentance with a recognition of who He is, we will receive that forgiveness. What is really tremendous is that Christ gave us a picture of just how good God’s forgiveness is in the midst of the most painful moments of His life. It’s wasn’t exactly convenient to show us a picture of God’s forgiveness but He did it anyway. Of course it’s never convenient to forgive. If we wait until it’s convenient to forgive we never will. But thank you Jesus for the picture of forgiveness you gave us on that terribly difficult day.
So even though “Good Friday” is one of the most horrific days for the events that took place there are reasons to see why it can be called “Good Friday.” It showed us the extent of God’s love. Without the events of the day we wouldn’t have experienced salvation. It is also a great picture of just how God can take tragedy and bring good things from it. Once again, He gives us a wonderful picture of God’s forgiveness. Thank you Jesus for “Good Friday.”
