Days 39 – Good Friday
Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—I have come to do your will, my God.’
-Hebrews 10:5-7
Just a few days ago, while I was explaining the meaning of Good Friday to some boys in St Andrew’s Hall, one of them asked me, “If Jesus died so horribly on the cross on the first Good Friday 2000 years ago, what is so good about Good Friday?”
That was such a thought-provoking question on many fronts.
Good Friday is definitely not “good” from the perspective of God the Father who gave up His Son for us and Jesus who suffered and died, but it meant all the world to us human beings. We who would have faced certain death and judgment for our sins are now given a new lease of hope! Light has shined into our lives where formerly they were all in the pitch darkness of despair!
Secondly, it helps us to reconsider what “good” is. Is “good” all about comfort, pleasure and wealth or something else altogether different? To Jesus who went to the cross, true goodness is all about fulfilling the Father’s will for him. That is the highest level and epitome of good. It is the only goodness that lasts and brings about the greatest benefits for all eternity. It truly challenges us to change our perspectives of good to what God’s mind on goodness is.
Today, as we commemorate Good Friday and meditate on the sacrifice of Christ, let us fully realise that though the great salvation of God through Christ on the cross came to us without price, it cost Him everything! The gift of reconciliation with God may be free to us but it is not cheap. Jesus had to go the cross to make forgiveness and healing possible.
The “good” of Good Friday is therefore experienced by all of us at cost of our Lord laying down his life for us. What an amazing act of grace and mercy our loving God has done for us today!
Almighty Father, look with mercy on this your family for which our Lord Jesus Christ was content to be betrayed and given up into the hands of sinners and to suffer death upon the cross; who is alive and glorified with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Revd Ian 🙏