Tonight is Good Friday. I can hardly ever say “Good Friday” without thinking it just seems wrong to have any mention of good on this day. We’re remembering the final humiliating and torturous hours of Jesus’s life as He went to the cross and died an excruciating death. It’s much easier to understand calling Easter Sunday Good Sunday instead but we don’t. Why is this and, really, what’s good about Good Friday?
He did for us what we could not do for ourselves
Even on his way to the cross, Jesus already had His eyes set on what was to come. He understood that this was a necessary part of the plan to accomplish the mission. His love for us was such that He was willing to pay this unthinkable price and He did for us what we could not do for ourselves. His sinless human form took on the debt of sin incurred by me and He did this long before I was even born. Jesus did it for all of us past, present and yet to come. That once and for all through his sacrifice, we could be reconciled to our Holy Heavenly Father, regardless of what we do. Forever we have a pathway to reconciliation, forgiveness and eternal life. And this is what makes Good Friday so very, very Good.
How powerful a negative motivator is envy
This week, as I was working through my Easter Bible Study, something struck me as I read about the days leading up to Good Friday. Jesus was brought before Pilate and he could find no fault with Jesus but the chief priests and the people kept demanding Jesus be crucified. In Matthew 27:18 it says of Pilate, “he knew that it was because of envy that they had handed him over.” At the very root of it all was the driver of envy. How powerful a negative motivator that it would send the Son of God to the cross.
A powerful invisible stronghold
Thankfully that was then, more than two thousand years ago. But no, today just as it was back then leading up to Good Friday, envy continues to be the most powerful negative incitor of sin, big and small. I was thinking about myself. I don’t consider myself to be a very materialistic person. I love for others to be happy, healthy and successful. I haven’t thought much about the role of envy in my life but as I have over the past couple of day, I realize that it’s there. It’s the source of discontentment in the areas of my life where I wish things were different. It’s not overt, it’s not obvious and, in some ways, this gives it a powerful invisible stronghold that can be very destructive. As this awareness is coming to me, I am going to continue pondering it, praying about it and hopefully bringing it into the light and letting it go as much as I can.
And forevermore, there’s always hope
In a world where we want the fast pass to the celebrations, it can be hard to remember that the journey to get there is often long, difficult and fraught with unexpected obstacles. During these times, it is so easy to feel envy. We feel forgotten, abandoned, alone. We wonder how anything good can come from our trials, from our suffering, from the relentless problems. But we must press on. Sometimes it takes all we have to keep moving. But we must. It is hard to reach out to others. But we must. We want to quit because it feels hopeless. But it’s not. Because even in the darkness and hopelessness of Good Friday, there is hope because Easter Sunday is coming. Thank you Jesus.
