Good Friday

Good Friday.

So why is it called "good" if the greatest person who ever lived was put to death in an ignominious way?  The historical origin of this term is not clear.  In German it is called Karfreitag or Suffering Friday, which seems more descriptive of the event it commemorates.  Other places call it Holy Friday and perhaps "Good Friday" actually comes from "God Friday," just as "good bye" comes from "God be with you."

Theologians say that this particular Friday is called "good" because of the goodness of the result, the outcome of Christ's suffering, namely, the eternal life that Jesus purchased with his self sacrificing death. 

An event such as the suffering and death of Jesus on the cross can be looked at from at least two different perspectives, that of the perpetrators and that of the one who suffered.  From the perspective of the ones who perpetrated, the deed was anything but good.  It was the most heinous crime ever committed.  To put to death the Author of Life is monstrous beyond all assessment.  Jesus in the Gospel indeed tells us that the Son of Man must go the way that was foretold of him, but woe to him by whom it comes about, referring in particular to Judas Iscariot.

But from the point of view of the sufferer Jesus, there was human suffering beyond all imagining precisely because of the love that the sufferer had for us.  The loss of a loved one is always a very difficult thing to suffer and the more loved the lost one is the more painful.  Jesus, in suffering his own death, must have felt incredible pain because of his incredible love for us.  When you love somebody and want to give them something beautiful, it hurts incredibly when they are unable or unwilling to receive it.

In an absolute sense, Jesus did not have to die.  If the people had accepted him and his reign over them the world would be made anew and heaven would have come on earth.  But we were not willing and able to accept him and thus he was compelled to die.  He wanted to give himself to us, his life, his truth and yet in the end the only thing he was able to give of himself to us was his life through his very own death.

And yet he made that death the vehicle of his life.  We did not realize it at the time, but his death was opening up a way for us by which death itself would be overcome.  We can therefore say with the  onlooking Roman centurion,  "Truly this man was the Son of God."

And yet there is a third perspective -- ours!  With the advantage of 20-20 hindsight, we see with the eyes of faith that Good Friday can indeed be called good because of the Easter that it won.   And Easter is not good because of the joy that it brings.  Easter is joyous because of the good it brings.  And part of that good is joyous promise of eternal life.

Good Friday is good because it is the worst event in history that wonderfully and mysteriously leads to greatest event in history, all in the span of three days.