Good Friday is an awkward day for me.
It’s the day set aside to commemorate Jesus’ suffering and horrific, tortuous death by crucifixion. In perfect obedience and service to God, Christ humbly, willingly walked the final steps of the path to the cross. His pre-ordained act of self-sacrificial love, planned from the beginning of time, laid the sins of the world on His sinless shoulders.
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5: 6-8)
So why do I find Good Friday awkward? Because we basically ignore it.
This day that marks the event on which all of history balances is fundamentally a non-occasion. No parades or football games or special restaurant promotions. On the day Christ died to save the world, it’s mostly business as usual.
Some churches will conduct special services, but they’ll be sparsely attended compared to the throngs in brightly colored new clothes on Easter. For most people, including believers, this Friday will be about the same as any other, distinguished possibly by an extra trip to the grocery store to purchase supplies for the Easter feast.
A large number of folks will be distracted from their normal tasks today, but Good Friday won’t be involved. Attention will shift toward computers and television screens to follow developments at The Masters golf tournament. I wonder if I’m the only person who perceives irony in a Good Friday round of golf named for ”The Master?”
I suppose I feel a bit like the disciples in the garden. Preparing for His betrayal, Jesus asked His three closest friends to watch and pray with Him. He went off alone and poured out His sorrow to God, asking one last time if this was really the only way to accomplish His mission.
Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” (Matthew 26: 40-41)
Somehow it seems like I ought to stop everything today and “keep watch” with Him. But I won’t. Like Peter, I claim great allegiance to Jesus and then fall away far too easily. I’ll try, and fail, to watch and pray to avoid temptation.
I know that Jesus understands and forgives my weakness. I know that He died to secure my freedom, and that He doesn’t want me to live in guilt or regret.
I know that He didn’t cling to disappointment with His friends who couldn’t watch with Him for even one hour. He simply turned toward God, picked up the cross, and voluntarily traveled those last few lonely steps.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! (2 Corinthians 5: 17)
What an incredible act of love. Even while we sin and fall short of the mark, Jesus gives everything so we can be new, whole, and at peace.
Good Friday indeed!
What does Good Friday mean to you?
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