Good Friday

So what is 'good' about Good Friday? Are we any better off than we were on Thursday? What is the purpose of Good Friday in Jesus' life? Let me answer the last question first - it is the last day of Jesus' life and some extraordinary things happen. First he is arrested, talks to Pontius Pilate, one of the bloodiest prefects of Judea. He was recalled to Rome a few years after Jesus' crucifixion because he seemed to really enjoy killing people. And this directive coming from one of the bloodiest Empires ever on the face of the earth. Then Jesus is flogged. Flogging in Roman times meant that a leather rope that has several "arms" on it is tied all together. At the end of each of these arms is a piece of metal. Finally he has to carry the cross beam that he will be tied to or nailed to (depending on which Biblical scholar you read) through the streets of Jerusalem to Golgotha. There Jesus is hoisted up onto the stake in the ground and left to die. He dies in a matter of hours, rather than days, which apparently most people had to endure who were crucified. So he has died and is carried to a newly carved out tomb and laid to rest there, but without the usual burial customs because it is nearly sundown and Passover is about to begin.

Are we better off than on Thursday? I don't know. But we have to go through Good Friday in order to get to Easter. We have to acknowledge that we are mortal and we will die someday. Not a really pleasant thought for most people. But it is a part of life. Death happens to everyone, i.e. that we have all experienced the death of a loved one or a good friend. Sometimes death isn't necessarily personal, but we feel its pangs nonetheless, if it happens to someone that we admire. So it is a big part of every one's life. It is a sad part of life, but we know that, for those on this side of the veil of death, we always have the memories of good times together and sometimes through thick and thin and the love that we gave and received in that relationship. None of these things ever die. As hard as it may be to live without someone, we do have to move on and keep on living our life.

Now, why is it called "Good" Friday? It seems that in English, it is the only "Good Friday".  In German it is Sorrowful or Mourning Friday and in other traditions Holy Friday. But it could have come from having  been originally called, "God's Friday".  That being the day when God took back one of his/her own. It eventually evolved into being called, "Good Friday".

So the point of this day appears to be this: that in order for us to have new life, we must discard the old one. We must lose something in order to fully regain it, but in a new way.