Why Do We Call It Good Friday?

The scripture of the day is John 18:1-19:42.

In various countries, today is called the Day of Preparation, Day of the Lord's Passion, the Passion of the Cross, and Long Friday. The Eastern Orthodox call it Great Friday. Those make sense. But in English-speaking countries, it's called Good Friday. And the question is, in view of the great evil done to our Lord this day, why do we call it good?

Jesus died on the Friday we are remembering. But it wasn't a “go to sleep and die in bed after a long life” kind of death. It was a “get flogged with a cat o' nine tails within an inch of your life, carry a heavy piece of wood on your shoulders, get stripped naked in public, have your hands and feet nailed to a cross and hang there until a combination of blood loss, shock and asphyxiation kills you” kind of death. In what way is that good?

The usual explanation is that out of Jesus' death on the cross come benefits for us: forgiveness of sins, reconciliation with God and eternal life. (1 Corinthians 15:3; 2 Corinthians 5:19; 2 Timothy 1:10; Hebrews 2:9) Those are great and good benefits indeed. But they were not obvious on the Friday that he died. As the disciples on their way to Emmaus said of Jesus, “But we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.” (Luke 24:21) Notice the past tense: “...we had hoped...” In their eyes that hope died on the cross with Jesus. It was only the resurrection that allowed them to see his horrible, humiliating death as something good and even glorious.

We can indeed see goodness coming from what Jesus did. But I think we can see goodness in what Jesus did.

We often think of being good as synonymous with being nice or decent. Someone who is sympathetic and listens to others, or does little things like remembering birthdays, is often considered a good person. And I'm not saying that such people aren't really good. They are. But, let's face it, there are so many people constantly doing terrible things that simply not being a jerk can make people think you are a good person. We have lowered the bar on what is good behavior in reaction to the frequency with which we see bad behavior.

But to say that merely not being rude or egregiously selfish is good is to diminish the concept of goodness to the point where merely being passive is sufficient for a person to be seen as moral. It reminds me of the post on Facebook that says something like “Kevin sees a post he doesn't agree with. Kevin doesn't get into a big argument in the comments section. Kevin just keeps scrolling past it. Be like Kevin.” Yes, it would be nice if people didn't make a big deal every time they see something on the internet they don't like. But that doesn't mean that Kevin is a saint. He may just be apathetic. In fact, if you saw something that said “Hitler was right about everything,” and had no reaction to it, it could be that you simply don't care that a Nazi posted on your feed. Or, it could mean you secretly agree. The Nazis executed not only 6 million Jews but an additional 5 to 7 million non-Jews like disabled persons, sick children, gypsies, Slavs, Poles, gays, priests, and pastors who didn't agree with them. How many of those people could the Nazis have killed if the vast majority of Germans had actively resisted what their government was doing rather than just ignore the mass murder? As the Rev. Charles F. Aked said, “...for evil men to accomplish their purpose it is only necessary that good men should do nothing.”

There were people who did actively work against the Nazi policy of killing people merely for what they were. Diplomats like Chiune Sugihara from Japan and Raoul Wallenberg from Sweden provided official papers that put Jews in Nazi-occupied areas under the protection of their governments. Officials of the Nazi-occupied country of Denmark managed to ferry 7200 Jews to neutral Sweden when notified that they were going to be rounded up and shipped to concentration camps. When the mayor of the Greek island of Zakynthos was ordered to give the Nazis a list of the Jews there, Bishop Christostomos presented a list with only two names: his and the mayor's. Meanwhile the island's residents hid and saved 275 Jews. Christians like Corrie ten Boom and her family in Holland, the Catholic priests and nuns of the monasteries in the Italian town of Assisi, Pastor Andre Trocme and his French village of La Chambon-sur-Lignon, Eastern Orthodox nun Mother Maria Skobtsova and many others hid Jews or helped them escape. Many of these protectors of the lives of others paid for what they did with their own lives. They weren't good people in the sense of being nice and polite and inoffensive. They were Good with a capital G.

For the Christians who did this, the inspiration for these feats of self-sacrifice was Jesus, who gave his life to save us. Because they saw what he did as the very definition of goodness. They went above and beyond what most people would consider good behavior because Jesus did. They realized that when Jesus said, “If anyone wants to become my follower, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me,” he meant it. (Luke 9:23) He was serious when he said we must follow his way of love even if it leads to our death. They didn't just pay him lip service. They really believed him and their faith led to deeds most of us cannot imagine putting ourselves on the line for.

This deserves to be called Good Friday because it reveals what goodness truly is. It is the goodness of God, who essentially took on a suicide mission by entering his creation and becoming one of us though he knew that we would find his goodness intolerable and kill him as we have his prophets.

And even on the cross Jesus asked forgiveness for his executioners, assured a condemned man who had repented that he would be with him in paradise and made provisions for his widowed mother's care while feeling abandoned by God. Were he merely a man this would be regarded as remarkably noble and heroic. But knowing that he is also divine reveals the unimaginable grace that flows from the heart of the God who is love. (Luke 23:34-43; John 19:26-27; Mark 15:34; 1 John 4:8)

On Good Friday we see the horror of the cross, something we humans created to make the death of others more terrible and painful and humiliating. And yet we also see the unfathomable goodness and love and humility of the God who chose to live and die as one of us. This is the God who calls us to use the gifts he has given us to help and heal rather than to harm. This is the God who can say with first hand experience, “In this world you will have trouble and suffering, but take courage—I have conquered the world.” (John 16:33) This is the God in whose image we all were created. This is the God who has redeemed us. This is the God who indwells us. This is the God who has chosen us to follow him, denying ourselves, shouldering our crosses, and willingly going through hell if need be, knowing that he will never leave us or forsake us, in order to reach on the other side the paradise of his eternal loving presence.