Good Friday?

It’s now 12 days until “Good” Friday. In some ways, t seems like an odd name to give the day our Lord Jesus Christ was tortured, flogged and crucified on a cross, along with common criminals. There’s nothing “good” about that is there?

But what is “good” is that Jesus, on that day, finished what He came to do. He paid the price for our sin, which is death, providing a way for all people, through faith in Christ, to have a full and open relationship with God. So in that sense it is “Good” Friday – the “goodness” of God triumphed over the power of evil. Interestingly the Bible never mentions “Good Friday”, or Resurrection Sunday, or Lent, or Easter, or many other words that we use for the time of Christ’s death and resurrection. The Bible just talks about Christ finally dying at the “9th hour” (which was 3pm on the Friday), Mt 27:45, and rising “around dawn on the first day of the week,” (which was Sunday), Mt 28:1-6. This confuses many Christians who then say that the time period between Christ’s death and resurrection was only roughly 1.5 days. However “time” in the Bible was calculated differently to how we calculate our days. A “day” began and ended at sunset, (even though they calculated their “hours” starting at 6am, or sunrise).  So, in biblical terms it was “3 days” (Friday-Day 1, Saturday- Day 2, Sunday- Day 3). We can get so hooked up on technicalities and traditions that we forget what is truly important: Christ died for our sins and was resurrected to eternal life. Hallelujah! Let’s celebrate what matters, and let’s do that every day of the year!