Last week, our senior pastor Barret mentioned the name "Good Friday" and how weird that name sounds. Right now its sunny in West VA-which I'm just loving now-and so the day looks "good" to me. But for that first Good Friday, it was anything but good for Jesus. And to be honest, because the disciples didn't understand, it was anything but good for them. How could something so brutal, so devastating be "good?" Even the day looked anything but "good;" instead a darkness fell over the land (Matt 27:45).But it was good for them that Jesus leave. His words, translated into English in the ESV, are "It is to your advantage that I go away....(John 16:7)" If he didn't "go away" via the cross, we'd not have forgiveness, a new power, a new family, a new world one day, and of course a new Spirit within us.
And it was good for Jesus in that he purchased redemption of the whole cosmos (Col 1) and all death will one day be under his feet (I Cor 15), that every knee will bow and give glory to Him (Phil 2), and that the church he put His love on before the foundation of the world would cherish Him forever at a wedding feast (Rev 19).
It probably took the disciples a little while to consider that Friday a "Good Friday." Maybe not by the next Friday, but perhaps the Friday after next? At the very latest it would have taken seven Fridays (till Pentecost-the giving of the Holy Spirit).
Good Friday is our example of how God can turn injustice into victory for His people. It is indeed a Good Friday.
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