Why Good Friday?

⁵ Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷ but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ⁸ And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. ⁹ Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰ so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:5-11 ESV.

I apologize for this blog coming out early, but I will be out of town this coming Friday.

Have you ever asked, or have you asked, this question, “Why is this Friday called Good Friday, it wasn’t good for Christ died that day?” This blog came to be as my grandson asked me this question. This eight-year-old looked at me being as serious as possible. His question does make sense, for the world to say, that someone died for them is good. How could anyone call dying for the sins of the world, that is, yours and mine, good! But as Christians know and believe, without Jesus dying for our sins we would have no hope of eternal life and salvation. This is why we call this Friday, Good Friday. After explaining this to him, this made perfect sense to him.

In our Bible passage for this blog, it came from last week’s Epistle lesson. I really wasn’t sure what Bible passage I would use for this blog. As I sat in the pew and heard these words, my dilemma was solved. This is talking about our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He became true man for our sakes. It was this God/Man that came to earth on Christmas Day, which we celebrated a few short months ago. Here we see Christ as a servant, sacrifice, for our sins. When Adam and Eve sin we became enemies of God and were in full rebellion against Him. The only solution to our problem was that we could live a perfect life without sin, and this is impossible for us to do. God knew this and sent his only son into the world to take upon himself each and every one of our sins.

It is truly a Good Friday. We remember the words from the cross and if we go to church this Good Friday, we will probably hear them again. When Jesus spoke the words, “It is finished.”, we knew that his sacrifice had redeemed us from sin, death, and the devil. This is the Good News of Good Friday. And then as Jesus finished these words, he gave up his soul and died. You may notice that Jesus gave up his life, it was not taken from him but he gave it up for you and for me. This is the love of God, the one and only true God, for all those who believe in him. This is why we as Christians celebrate Good Friday.

What happened next? He was buried and they large stone was rolled over the entrance. Then Easter! And he rose from the dead on the Sunday morning. We were buried with him and will rise again upon our death. But do we really look at the end of our life as death? I don’t believe so. For he has promised to each and every one of us like he did to the thief on the cross, that we would live with him in all eternity.

As we celebrate this Good Friday and look forward with all the joy of the Easter resurrection, we look to the one true and only God knowing he has bought us back from sin.

⁹ Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰ so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Thank you Lord, for paying for all of my sins past, present, and future and giving to me life and salvation. May I ever walk with you! Have this mind among you.

Happy Easter – Spread the Good News