Shouldn’t ‘Good Friday’ really be ‘Bad Friday’?

A small boy on the way into the hall asked a vicar “Why is it called Good Friday when Jesus died on that day? Surely it should be called Bad Friday?”

If you think about it, the day when Christians commemorate Jesus Christ’s crucifixion does seem black and bleak. According to the Bible, the son of God was flogged, ordered to carry the cross on which he would be crucified and then put to death. It’s difficult to see what is “good” about it.

There are a number of explanations as to why the term ‘Good’ has been widely adopted as the name for the day on which Jesus was crucified but, whatever its origin, it was indeed a good day for  humanity.  Although, quite rightly, Christians celebrate Easter as the moment when Jesus was resurrected, the resurrection was the result, the evidence, that Jesus had taken the sins of the whole world on his shoulders when he who was entirely sinless, allowed himself to be crucified. It was on Good Friday that Jesus atoned for our sins and in so doing defeated death itself. Good Friday was indeed a very good day for us!       

The events leading up to the arrest and crucifixion of Jesus are well-told by the writers of Matthew Mark, Luke and John in the bible, But why Jesus died is why Good Friday is good?

The Roman authorities and the Jewish council wanted Jesus dead. He was a political and social trouble-maker. But what made the death of Jesus more significant than the countless other crucifixions carried out by the Romans and witnessed outside the city walls by the people of Jerusalem?

As Christians we believe that Jesus was far more than a political radical, he is the Son of God. For us the death of Jesus was part of a divine plan to save humanity.

For Christians it is through Jesus’s death that people’s broken relationship with God is restored. This is known as the Atonement.

The word atonement is used in Christian theology to describe what is achieved by the death of Jesus. William Tyndale introduced the word in 1526, when he was working on his popular translation of the Bible, to translate the Latin word reconciliatio.

Atonement (at-one-ment) is the reconciliation of men and women to God through the death of Jesus. That reconciliation is needed because of the wrongs we do each day of our lives (sin). In the beginning God’s creation was perfect but the Devil tempted the first man Adam and sin was brought into the world. Everybody continues to sin, just think of the things you think say and do each day that damage the relationship you have with God, other people, and how you see yourself. None of us are perfect and this sin separates us from God, just as Adam and Eve were separated from God when they were cast out of the Garden of Eden. It is like a great Chasm exists between us and God and no amount of being good, saying the right thing or going through the actions can bridge that gap. Only Jesus who was perfect can bridge that Chasm through his death on the cross,