What’s So Good About Good Friday?

My father lived overseas for most of my childhood and we would all go to Mass whenever we visited him. Though I was not a Catholic, or even a Christian yet for that matter, my father was. Due to this arrangement, I had the opportunity to experience some of the most beautiful and historic cathedrals the world has to offer. But none was more memorable than the Catholic church we attended in Roppongi. This particular church was lead by Franciscan monks and located in Tokyo’s notorious “entertainment” district. The congregation was “colorful” to say the least. It was wonderfully weird to see the Brothers, in their traditional brown robes, next to call-girls and businessmen. I had never seen a monk in real life before and this was a totally new flavor of Catholic for me. They looked exactly like the depictions I had seen in movies but were simultaneously nothing like what I expected. The Brothers were jovial, humble, and somehow they just seemed more down-to-earth. As the service started, one of the monks took his place behind the podium. He began his message with a question, “Good Friday… what’s so good about it?” This is a valid question and one that has stayed in my mind all these years later. What is so good about Good Friday? 

Rose of Sharon - Big Flower (Concept sketch 1), 2023

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For anyone scratching their head right now, “Good Friday” is the name of the day which commemorates Jesus’ crucifixion. Two thousand years ago today, Jesus died on the cross. He was tortured, humiliated, and executed. He did not commit any crime and not one person came to his defense. 

I remember looking at the carving of Jesus hanging from the crucifix at the front of the church and thinking to myself, what part of all that could possibly be good? The monk paused, and after a very awkward laugh from the congregation, he explained the foundation of Christianity in the most beautifully simple way. “Jesus died for you. He willingly sacrificed His life for us. And that’s good.” I am not sharing this story with you to make you feel ashamed or guilty, quite the opposite actually. You see, Jesus did not come to condemn us, He came to set us free. 

Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrated His own love for us in this; while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:7-8 (NIV).

Christ’s death is not the ultimate guilt-trip but rather, the ultimate act of love. Jesus, the Son of God, voluntarily sacrificed Himself to heal the chasm that our sins had created which separated us from God. For every action there is a consequence and the consequences of all our sins were shame, and guilt, and death. Our sins held us in bondage demanding payment - a sort of restitution for all the messed up things we had done. 

Rose of Sharon - A Hedge (Concept sketch 2), 2023

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But God loved us too much to let this stand. So He sent Jesus to be Emmanuel (“God with us”). Jesus was both fully divine and fully human. I believe God came down to us in this way so that we could see Him, and touch Him, hug Him, and hear His voice. To put it simply, He came to be our friend. We were created to be in communion with God, to have a relationship with Him. But we deprived ourselves of that intimacy through the block of our own sins (and our human attempts to make up for those sins). Consequently, Jesus found us stumbling around in the dark, lost, and hurting. So he stayed with us, healed us, taught us, and in the ultimate act of love and friendship, He gave His life for us. He took on all the sins of the world and died alone on a cross, to pay the penalty for our sin once and for all. He did this for you, and for me, and for all the generations to come so that our relationship with God would be restored. And He did all this while mankind was actively rejecting Him (some of us still do), because God loves us even if we don’t love Him. Jesus died to set us free from sin so that we would have the freedom to love God if we chose to. Every action has a consequence and the consequence of Jesus’ death is that you and I are no longer bound by sin but are free to be God’s friend again.   

Rose of Sharon - Looking Through The Flowers (Concept sketch 3), 2023

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So today I invite you to take a moment, take a break from dyeing eggs with the kiddos or rushing around trying to find the best ham sale. Just take a breath and really take it in - God wants to be your friend! And 2,000 years ago, today, Jesus died to shatter the hold that sin has on your life so that you can be close Him. Once that awesome reality has permeated your heart, don’t just keep it to yourself, let somebody know what’s so good about Good Friday.