Given that it commemorates the slow and brutal mocking, torture, and eventual murder of Jesus Christ, the phrase Good Friday may at first seem oxymoronic or even macabre to those unfamiliar with the Christian creed. But the “Good News” of the sacrificial atonement of the incarnate One True God is, for Christians, the center of the physical and spiritual realms, a hope unimaginable and yet which transformed the Western world in what C.S. Lewis dubbed a “good infection.”
Shortly after raising Lazarus from death (John 11:38-44), Jesus Himself conquered death in His resurrection, commemorated with lilies and joy on Resurrection Day (Easter). This, however, was the consequence of that amazing grace demonstrated at the cross upon which He was hung – on “Good News Friday,” commemorated around the world today.
Good Friday at the Cross
The greatest intersectionality in human history is symbolized in rough wooden cross-beams joining the horizontal with the vertical – the material with the ethereal – but most centrally and importantly, the intersectionality of justice and grace, the perfect fulfillment of God’s revealed plan to reconcile humanity to Himself through the greatest love one human can show for another: “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15: 12-13, KJV)
God is perfectly just. But also, “His mercy endures forever.” (Psalm 136, KJV). His nature includes grace – “unmerited divine assistance given to humans for their regeneration or sanctification,” as Merriam-Webster defines it. In Christ, justice intersected with mercy at the Cross. Once and for all, death and sin were conquered, through the “Power of the Blood” of Emmanuel, “God with us.”
It really is almost too awesome to even fathom – surely it was beyond the understanding even of the apostles who walked the Earth with Him, until it was finished. Yet the event unleashed the greatest of all commandments, a love that shocked the Roman Empire as Christians (mostly women in the early church) risked death in the emulation of that sacrifice, aiding lepers and plague victims. The admonition to treat slaves as humans eventually led to the abolition of slavery in Christian nations. Hospitals and humane prisons grew from the Great Commandment; from Good Friday.
A Humbling Celebration
That commandment – that we love not just one another, but even enemies who persecute us – has infused Christian consciousness ever since that first great Good Friday. Italian and German citizens marveled when the United States dropped food and medical supplies over their nations after fighting the Axis powers in World War 2. German prisoners of war detained in US prisons were so well treated that many of them stayed in the country after hostilities ended, marrying American women, and becoming naturalized citizens. These actions, too, can trace their foundation to that Christian Good Friday.
Victory and Hope!
Most marvelous of all, the thief on the cross beside Jesus is evidence that all sinners, no matter what their past or circumstance, can always turn to that intersection of grace and justice for reconciliation and spiritual healing. The relationship developed between man and God continues today, through that atoning sacrifice, both for “unsaved” people who are “born again” into belief, and Christians who still sin and must return to that font of love and living water, perhaps daily, for restoration and accountability.
Let us pause and pray for our nation and the world, that the message of Christ on that horrid cross will continue to heal hearts and minds, encourage forgiveness, draw people to have compassion for their political and foreign enemies, and turn all eyes toward heaven. That is the good news despite the tragic event, and why we call it Good Friday.
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