Thoughts on Good Friday

Early this morning the question came to my mind --- why do we call this day, the day the church has historically marked our Lord’s crucifixion, “Good Friday”?

Of course I am not the first to ask that question and it seems there is no certain answer. The following are some considerations:

Calling the day of the Crucifixion ‘Good’ Friday is a designation that is peculiar to the English language. In German, for example, it is called Karfreitag. The Kar part is an obsolete word, the ancestor of the English word care in the sense of cares and woes, and it meant mourning. So in German, it is Mourning Friday. And that is what the disciples did on that day—they mourned. They thought all was lost.

I’ve read that the word good used to have a secondary meaning of holy, but I can’t trace that back in my etymological dictionary. There are a number of cases in set phrases where the words God and good got switched around because of their similarity. One case was the phrase God be with you, which today is just good-bye. So perhaps Good Friday was originally God’s Friday. But I think we call it Good Friday because, in pious retrospect, all that tragedy brought about the greatest good there could be.

I can see virtue in either terminology. If we call it Mourning Friday, as in German, we are facing reality head on, taking up the cross if you will, fully conscious that the Christian walk is seldom a walk in the park. But if we call it Good Friday, as in English, we are confessing the Christian hope that no tragedy—not even death—can overwhelm God’s providence, love, and grace!

- Ken Collins

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Our Lord placed no significance on this day any more than on the day of His birth, transfiguration, etc. The early apostles and church seemed to consider His Incarnation in its entirety – the Virgin birth, the perfect life, the supernatural miracles, the profound preaching, the transfiguration, the divine intercession, the Garden travail, the arrest, trial and crucifixion – as the focal point of our personal and corporate worship. The obvious exception was the Resurrection, for indeed this was to be marked in our weekly gathering on the first day of the week in celebration of that reality! One Lord’s Day was not seen as standing above another and there is no indication of an annual celebration such as we know today as Easter.

But that is not to say that His death is not a central element in the life of the church. The Word makes clear that God would desire we be drawn to that remembrance in many ways …

From the prophetic imagery of Isaiah:

Isaiah 53:4-11

4 Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. 6 All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.

7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut off out of the land of the living For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due? 9 His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.

10 But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand. 11 As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities.

To the repeated references of the Epistles:

Romans 5:10

10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

Romans 6:3

3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?

Romans 6:5-7

5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death , certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,

6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;

7 for he who has died is freed from sin.

Romans 6:10-11

10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.

11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 2:8

8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death , even death on a cross.

Hebrews 2:9

9 But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.

1 Peter 3:18

18 For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;

It is good for us to remember His death, for in that we are regularly reminded of our sin; the two go together.

Isaiah said: “Our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried…”

“He was pierced through for our transgressions…”

“He was crushed for our iniquities…”

“The LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him…”

The Apostles said: “while we were enemies…”

“in order that our body of sin might be done away with…”

“Christ also died for sins once for all…”

Pause today to think about His crucifixion. Remember His suffering. And be certain that you see it in the context of YOUR SIN. His death was for NOTHING He did, but for EVERYTHING you did … a perfect sacrifice; the just for the unjust!”