It's All Good

Good Friday.  I like that phrase.  

Normally, Fridays are good.  We say phrases like "Thank God it's Friday," and normally that's very true.  We like Fridays because it denotes an end, and a beginning.  The end of what seemed to be a long week, and the beginning of a what we hope to be a long weekend.   We like Friday's because we can sleep in on Saturday, so that could mean a little party time on Friday night.  We like Friday's because Monday seems so very far away.

Here in Europe, this Friday is a holiday.  It's Good Friday.  Good Friday didn't start out so good more than 2000 years ago.  Jesus had been arrested, and on this day was brought before the king of the land to stand trial for making himself king, opposing the tax laws of the day, and seemingly undermining the authorities of the day.  But Pilate couldn't find reason to charge him, so out of the goodness of his heart - and because of the season of Passover - he let's tradition rule and allows the people to choose a person to be freed from a sentence of death.

It sounded like a good plan for Jesus, but the people were incited to riot and turned against Jesus and asked for the baddest guy in town to be released instead of a man of Peace.  So, on this first Good Friday, Jesus was tried, beaten, flogged, spit upon, forced to carry a cross that he would later be hung upon to die, pierced with a sword, and guards gambled over his clothes.  Sounds like a bad film, not a good day.

But something beautiful happened that day.  A sentence was given and posted above this man that read "Jesus of Nazereth, King of the Jews."  Doesn't sound like a sentence of death, and in fact it wasn't. It was a sentence of life.  Did Jesus die that day? Yes, He did.  That's why it's a Good Friday. He died on a cross, as was foretold would happen hundreds of years before, and He did it willingly.  He did it for you and He did it for me.  He died so that you and I could live.

That's why I celebrate Good Friday.  I celebrate because it was the end - end of my sin & eternal death - and the beginning - beginning of a life that will last for all eternity. Thank you Jesus for dying on the cross for me.  Thanks you for enduring all that you did so that I could live for you today.

And thanks also for living today.  Let's not forget that Sunday came...and that's why we celebrate Easter.  Let's make sure that today is so much more than a bank holiday!

Have a really GOOD FRIDAY!