Why Good Friday?

Many non-Christians around the world may question as to why we call this day Good Friday. After all, today is a commemoration of the day that Our Lord Jesus was sentenced to death, viciously tortured and nailed to a cross. What on earth could be good about that?

But we as Christians know that this day is the beginning of hope. Hope for our future.

God our Heavenly Father could see how wicked man truly was, and in His wisdom, He could see that the sacrifices of yearling lambs (as we see in the Old Covenant) would never be sufficient to wash away the sins of the human race. God had made a New Covenant through His Holy Spirit and His Son Jesus Christ that Jesus would come down to earth, be born of a virgin, live an unblemished life, and be sacrificed and killed so that we might live. The blood of Our Saviour, Jesus Christ would wash away our horrific sins forever.

So yes, today is a jolly ‘Good Friday’!

And the days that follow are equally good. We mourn on Good Friday and wait patiently during Holy Saturday. We patiently wait because unlike those poor people who came before us, we know that Jesus will rise from the dead on Easter Sunday.

Our Lord Jesus Christ died, rose from the dead, and conquered man’s sin forever.

I always found the Old Testament difficult to read and understand, and would prefer to read the New Testament … it seemed to make more sense. However, Jesus’ death links the old and new testaments together in a significant way. I often wondered why the lowly shepherds on a hillside outside Bethlehem were the first to be told of the good news, and witness the birth of Jesus. Was it a symbol of the humility with which Jesus entered this world? Perhaps … but it was more. Much more!

Jesus, at the beginning of His earthly ministry, was baptised by John who called Him ‘the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world’. In fact, Jesus is called a lamb or compared to a lamb more often than any other figure.

The sacrificial lamb was a common sight to every Jew and had great significance to them. In the Jewish culture, lambs were sacrificed to make atonement for disobeying the law, to give thanks to God, celebrate a special day, and to keep the tradition of the Passover.

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household.  If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight”. 

~ Exodus 12:1-6 (NIV)

Shepherds would tend their young sheep out in the open countryside for six months, from April (spring, just after Passover, when many lambs were born) until October, and then bring them into enclosures after the Feast of Tabernacles, for the winter.

The shepherds out on the hillside may very well have been tending the Passover lambs when the Lamb of God was born, making it appropriate that they should be the first to hear the good news.

Now after Jesus was arrested, He was repeatedly interrogated and tortured by Pilate, but Pilate could find no fault (no blemish). Jesus did not utter one word from His mouth as He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. Within homes in Jerusalem, lambs were being inspected to be declared fit for sacrifice (unblemished).

From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. 

~ Matthew 27:45 (NIV)

So darkness fell over the land from 12 mid-day until 3.00pm when Jesus would die upon the cross. During this same three hours, the Passover lambs were alone and frightened, just a few hours away from death.

As Jesus died upon the cross, at about the same time the Passover lambs were being slaughtered throughout Jerusalem. As the throats of the lambs were being severed with a knife, God was doing the same to the Passover lamb of the world.

And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split.

~ Matthew 27:50-51 (NIV)

It was like the curtain of the temple had been sliced open from top to bottom by a large, invisible knife.

And so this marked the last Passover as no more sacrifices would be needed. God had sacrificed His Son, and with the spilling of the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish, we the human race have been saved from eternal damnation.

1 Peter 1:18-19 (NIV)

For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.

So yes, happy Good Friday everyone!

[bctt tweet=”Because of the sacrifice of One, we have been cleansed as white as a fluffy cloud on an April morning.” username=”acwriters”]

What do you and your family do on Good Friday? Is it a day for quiet contemplation or more family orientated?