VICTOR JOECKS: What is ‘Good’ about Good Friday
Christians describe the day an innocent man was violently executed as “Good.” Unless you know the whole story, it doesn’t make much sense.
This is Holy Week on the Christian calendar. It began with Palm Sunday, which commemorates the Triumphal Entry. As Jesus rode a young donkey into Jerusalem, the people shouted, “Hosanna!” and, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
The symbolism may not be obvious now, but it was then. Hundreds of years before, Zechariah had prophesied that Israel’s king would come “riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
This was just one of the many prophecies about the Messiah that Jesus fulfilled. He was born to a virgin in Bethlehem, yet was called out of Egypt. He was from the line of David. He healed the blind, deaf and lame.
The people had every reason to believe that the Messiah had arrived to deliver them. And they knew just what they needed deliverance from — the Roman Empire.
King Herod believed this new king threatened his power and tried to kill Jesus after his birth. John 6 says the people wanted to make Jesus king by force. Even the Apostle Peter attempted to fight the guards who arrested Jesus. They were waiting for a Messiah to usher in a new earthly kingdom.
But Israel’s greatest problem wasn’t Roman rule, but sin. The same is true for us today because “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” as Romans 3:23 says. Sin separates us from God, and the “wages of sin is death” as Romans 6:23 states. That means even the best person can’t earn his or her way into a right relationship with God. Uh oh.
God, however, had a plan that was foreshadowed in the Passover meal. Right before God rescued Israel out of Egypt, he commanded each Israelite household to slaughter a lamb without defect. Each family then put blood from the lamb on the doorframe of their house. The Lord would see the blood and pass over that home while punishing the Egyptians.
When John the Baptist called Jesus “the Lamb of God,” he was referencing this. Jesus, who was fully God and fully man, lived a perfect life. He was crucified on Good Friday taking the penalty — death — that you and I deserve for our sins.
Good Friday was agony for Jesus. It wasn’t just physical pain. He was forsaken by God the Father. He bore the punishment that you and I deserve.
But he didn’t stay dead. Easter is a celebration of God raising Jesus from the dead. This confirmed what Jesus said in John 11, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies.”
What good news, and the offer still stands. Eternal life is a free gift to anyone who acknowledges that Jesus is Lord and believes “God raised him from the dead,” as Romans 10:9 says.
And that’s the full story of Good Friday. Happy Easter.
Victor Joecks’ column appears in the Opinion section each Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Contact him at vjoecks@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4698. Follow @victorjoecks on X.