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Good/Excellent Friday

March  21, 2008  - Ian

What is so good about Good Friday? Is it the day off work? Is it the public holiday? Is it the Easter Egg(s) that is soon to come your way? Is it decorating the eggs? Is it the hunt for the Easter Eggs? Is it the hot cross buns that are so yummy to eat? Is it the school holidays? Is it going to church? Is it the cards or the sweets/candies? What makes Good Friday good for you?

There are lots of good things about Good Friday and all of the above are good.

But for Jesus on the first Good Friday was there anything good for him? Didn’t he suffer mercilessly at the hands of his executors? Wasn’t crucifixion painful? Didn’t the false trial, the mocking, the whipping, the spitting, the crown of thorns, the carrying of the cross and the shame and pain of it all make it a bad Friday for Jesus? How could losing all of his supporters and friends be good, didn’t they all run away in fear and only the faithful women remained? How can the darkness, the earthquake and the temple curtain ripping be described as good? How can Jesus becoming ‘God forsaken’ be good for him? How can those nails and spear make it anything but a Bad Friday?

For Jesus is seems that there was nothing good about Good Friday.

Except that.....on the cross he cries “it is finished”. It is not a cry of desperation as in “hurry up and finish”, it is not whimper of ‘well, my life is now over”; it is a cry of victory. Jesus had finished his work on the cross. He had done what his heavenly Father had asked of him. The bad that had happened to him is now good, not for him, but for us.

So it was a bad Friday for Jesus but a very good Friday for us. For us, Good Friday is an Excellent Friday. Jesus had won our salvation. Jesus has won our forgiveness. Jesus has restored our relationship with God.

Celebrate today. Celebrate how good it is for us and how bad it was for Jesus and celebrate his willingness to make bad into good. For, he turns us bad and sinful, selfish and greedy people, into forgiven, restored people. We are now free to serve Jesus and not be found guilty by God’s laws.

Celebrate Good/Excellent Friday!

Ian

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