Day 45 - What's so GOOD about Good Friday?

Very early in the morning, the chief priests, with the elders, the teachers of the law and the whole Sanhedrin, reached a decision. They bound Jesus, led him away and handed him over to Pilate. "Are you the king of the Jews?" asked Pilate. "Yes, it is as you say," Jesus replied. The chief priests accused him of many things. So again Pilate asked him, "Aren't you going to answer? See how many things they are accusing you of." But Jesus still made no reply, and Pilate was amazed. Now it was the custom at the Feast to release a prisoner whom the people requested. A man called Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the uprising. The crowd came up and asked Pilate to do for them what he usually did. "Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?" asked Pilate, knowing it was out of envy that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead. "What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?" Pilate asked them. "Crucify him!" they shouted. "Why? What crime has he committed?" asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, "Crucify him!" Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified. Mark 15

Friday, April 22, 2011

Today is Good Friday, the day of Christ's death on the cross.

I've wondered through the years why such a sad day, such a time of devastation and tragedy, of humiliation and cruel death, would be called good.

What's so good about it?

Is it good because we know the outcome is wonderful -- His Easter resurrection? Is it good because, like castor oil and liver, it's something unpleasant that is actually beneficial to us? Is it good because putting a "happy face" on it makes it more palatable, easier to push through to the better time ahead?

Maybe part of these, perhaps all of these. But I think there's more to it than that.

As they led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. Jesus turned and said to them, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. For the time will come when you will say, 'Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!' Then " 'they will say to the mountains, "Fall on us!" and to the hills, "Cover us!" ' For if men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?" Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. 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. The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, "He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One." The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, "If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself." There was a written notice above him, which read: this is the king of the jews. 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." Luke 23: 26-43

As I've pondered and wondered, I've meditated on this, off an on through the years. I am not a biblical scholar, I have no training in theology. So I go with what I do know, the meaning of words. So for me, Good Friday's name goes back to the beginning -- that first word -- GOOD. And the context of that one word, as found in the Word itself.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. Genesis 1: 1-4

What does "good" mean in this particular context? Sure, it means something nice, beneficial, pleasant. But look at who's saying it's good. God himself. So in this context, which I also apply to Good Friday, "good" means "pleasing to God."

Now, you wonder, what can be pleasing to God, when His own son is humiliated, shamed, beaten, and put to death? How can He be pleased by that?

And the answer is found in another application of the word "good." The concept of "obedience."

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross! Philippians 2: 5-8

Think about it for a moment. Think about it from a parent's perspective, who is teaching his child obedience. The father leaves his child in the care of a babysitter, or a family member, and tells the child, "Behave. Do what you're told. Be good." In other words, follow through on expectations. Be obedient.

Jesus did just that. Obedient to death -- death on a cross -- knowing it was expected of him, and pleasing to his Father.

Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews. With Pilate's permission, he came and took the body away. He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. Taking Jesus' body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there. John 19: 38-42

I, too, have been following a path of obedience. I hope that my obedience -- to the needs of my body, as dictated by Dr. Ford, as led by God -- is pleasing to my heavenly Father. I pray that He looks upon this journey, and says, "It is good."

Su