Good Friday?
Almost two thousand years ago, an
innocent man was executed outside the walls of the city of Jerusalem. Even his judge acknowledged that he had done nothing wrong.
But the religious authorities of the day were jealous of this man's popularity.
They whipped up a crowd to howl for his blood and pressurised the Roman
Governor Pontus Pilate to sentence him to death. Pilate caved in to their
demands. He did not want a full-scale riot on his hands. The innocent man was
viciously flogged. Then he was executed by crucifixion, the most brutal form of
capital punishment ever devised by man. The day on which this cruel travesty of
justice happened we now call, "Good Friday".
So, we might ask, "What was so
good about Good Friday?" On the face of it, the answer has to be
nothing. What makes things worse is that the innocent man in question was none
other than the Son of God in human form. We call him Jesus. He lived a life of
perfect love, compassion and integrity. He taught the people about the kingdom
of God and offered forgiveness to broken sinners. Jesus was endued with
miraculous power. He cured people of blindness, leprosy, lameness and
paralysis. On more than one occasion he raised the dead to life. Yet they
crucified him. What a terrible waste! What a rejection of God in all
his goodness and love!
But Jesus did not see his death as a
tragic and meaningless event. It was the greatest ever demonstration of God's
love for human beings. Jesus knew that his Father had sent him to
bring salvation and hope to a world that has been wrecked by rebellion against
God. Sin deserves to be punished. On the cross, Jesus died in the place of
sinners so that we might be put right with God. On a merely human level, the
crucifixion of Jesus was an act of awful wickedness. But God meant it for good.
Because Jesus died for us, we can know forgiveness and have a new relationship
with God. That is why we call the Friday of Easter weekend "Good Friday".
However, the Easter story does not
end there. On the first Easter Sunday, God raised his Son from the dead. He
overturned the verdict of those who condemned Jesus to death and vindicated his
sacrifice on the cross. Jesus is alive! He has defeated death and the grave. All
who confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe in their hearts that God
raised him from the dead will have everlasting life.