Why Good?

Dear Praise Family,

Today is Good Friday. Considering the day’s events, it is so difficult to understand how this was “good.” Good Friday began with a betrayal and arrest of an innocent man, nay, the Son of God. He was illegally and illegitimately tried and convicted as a criminal. He was handed over to the Romans to be flogged, and Jesus was whipped with forty lashes, minus one, a punishment made to inflict incredible pain but also to humiliate. When it seemed that the worst had passed, a crown of thorns was thrust on His head, He was clothed with a purple cloak, and He was mocked and beaten some more. He had become a spectacle and an object of ridicule among the people. For many, this punishment would have been more than enough.

But not so for Jesus. The people weren’t satisfied with a “simple” flogging, but their complete hatred for Him led to them calling for Him to be killed. He was handed over to be crucified. With His flesh raw and torn, He was made to carry a cross through the city where He was nailed to the cross and lifted up before the people. He writhed in agony from 9:00 in the morning until 3:00 in the afternoon, just trying to find a position that would provide some relief from the excruciating pain. Finally, at 3:00, “He said, ‘It is finished,’ and bowed His head and give up his spirit,” (John: 19:30).

This physical pain is bad enough to endure. But imagine the anguish as Jesus cried out to His Father, who, for the first time in all of eternity, could not even look at his own Son. The Father turned his face away because Jesus had become sin for us, and the Father, in His holiness, could not be in the presence of sin. Instead, as Jesus bore our sin, the full weight of God’s wrath fell on Jesus…and Jesus took it all.

Jesus endured incredible physical pain, rejection from the people He loved, and separation from His Father, yet we call this Friday, “Good” Friday. How could this possibly be described as “good?”

Oh, but it is good. From our perspective it is good because Jesus took our place. That punishment should have been ours, but He bore it for us. From His perspective it is good because by taking our place, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us,” (Galatians 3:13), and made it possible for us to be with Him for eternity! Hebrews 12:2 says that “for the joy that was set before Him [He] endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” In other words, we were worth it; the joy set before Him was the hope of an eternity spent with us.

Good Friday was painful…but it is good. And what makes Good Friday even better is the knowledge that Sunday is coming…

In Christ,
Pastor Evan