The Hope of Good Friday

I was thinking today about why Good Friday is called Good Friday.

Good Friday was sad - no, more than sad - it was devastatingly tragic. There were earthquakes. It was dark. A mother lost her son, a brother lost his kin, the disciples lost their friend. It's the day that Jesus was violently murdered on the cross. The day that our beloved Savior was nailed to a tree. The day that Christ cried out in anguish, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

I can say with absolute certainty that Good Friday seemed like the most hopeless day that will ever exist in all of eternity. The Messiah, the one who came to save and restore His people, died and was buried in a borrowed grave. The One who created heaven and earth, the Son of God, was mocked, beaten and killed by ignorant and hateful people. Everything that the disciples... everything that all of creation for all of time... had been believing in and hoping for was questioned and ripped apart.

So why do we call this horrible, sad, gruesome Friday "Good?"

Because we know the end of the story.

I have no doubt that the disciples would not have called this day "good" as it was happening. But they should have known better, right? Jesus had told them the end of the story, too. He told them he would rise after three days. He told them he was the Messiah that they had been waiting for. He promised that he offered eternal life. But in the middle of their story, as the plot thickened and the dramatic climax broke, the goodness of the end of the story got muddled by the sadness of the circumstances.

In our lives, we too are constantly making our way through days and events that we would call anything but good. Sad? Yes. Heartbreaking? Yes. Disappointing? Yes.

Hopeless? Yes.

But - hope resides in the fact that we know that this is not the end of the story; it's just the beginning. We recognize today as Good Friday not because of the events that transpired on it, but because of THE event that came three days later. We find goodness and hope in the day that Christ died because we know that there is no greater goodness, no greater hope, than that which is found in Easter.

As we struggle through life, making our way through the trials and tribulations that inevitably come our way, may we find our hope in Christ alone. He is writing our story. He is the great I Am. He knows the end.

And it is good.


"Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."
Hebrews 12:2