The Good in Good Friday

I read the story of Jesus dying on the cross to my daughter tonight.  After we finished and said good-night, I began to think.  I felt sad.  That story didn't have a happy ending!  It suddenly seemed so UNFAIR.  If I could multiply that by a factor of 100, I suppose I might have a small idea of how the disciples felt about it.  The story of the cross, by itself, really is not a happy story.

 

That got me thinking more.  I began to ponder why we call the Friday before Easter "Good" Friday.  I did some reading on the question and discovered that English-speakers are the only people to refer to this day as "Good."  In German, for example, it is known as "Mourning Friday".  Somehow that seems more appropriate.  I mean, seriously, what's good about a Man who claims to be the Messiah ending up deserted by His friends, nailed to a cross, and buried in a borrowed tomb?

 

Christians believe that Jesus died as a ransom for our sins.  His payment was required under God's law.  Humanity had broken the law and are living under a curse.  We needed a sacrifice.  It occurred to me that there were three important differences between the sacrifices of the Old Testament and the sacrifice that Jesus offered.

 

First, the sacrifices in the Old Testament were limited to specific people or group.  One sacrifice for one person or group.  Christ, on the other hand, offered a sacrifice that was (and is) for the whole world.

 

Second, Jesus was a perfect sacrificial victim.  Not only was He without "blemish or spot" (as the Old Testament sacrifices were required to be), but also He was human.  A human taking another human's place.

 

Finally--and this is the really important part, the Father accepted Jesus' sacrifice completely, so that we can really be forgiven, completely.  How do we know that the Father accepted this sacrifice?  Because of Easter.  Jesus rose from the grave as the evidence that the Father put the period on Jesus' claim that "It is finished".  You never see an animal in the Old Testament come back to life, do you?  That's because their sacrifice only "covered" sin and "appeased" God.  Christ's sacrifice "forgives" sin and "satisfies" the Father.  There is a world of difference.

 

So maybe Good Friday isn't so good by itself.  It's just that the story isn't finished until Sunday.  That's when the happy ending comes.