Redefining “Good” Friday

Carolyn Arends wrote, “Easter Sunday is the Christian faith’s gold medal victory lap…the Happily Ever After…But here’s the rub: I dread Good Friday…images of torture and suffering…sombre music…the terrible recollected cry, ‘My God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ Left to my own devices, I’d probably skip Good Friday. But…if I did, Easter morning would become increasingly hollow. I’d forget how much my salvation cost…I’d start to believe that you can have victory without sacrifice…that you don’t have to die [to self] to live the resurrection. I’d buy the lie that Christ’s…victory over death—and my decision to follow him—means life will be trouble-free…The biblical writers…encourage us to consider suffering…an opportunity to identify with Christ…to take up His cross. Yet…when the job is lost or the tumour is malignant or the friendship is betrayed, we grieve not only the wound but also the fact that we can be wounded. We feel…Jesus has let us down. We don’t consider it ‘pure joy.’…We consider it failure…So how do we become Easter Sunday Christians? When I’m expecting Easter Sunday and I get Good Friday…[I try] to remember that God’s definition of ‘good’…far exceeds my own…that almost all the new beginnings…have come from what felt…like terrible endings….What seems like a small (but devastating) death is actually a chance at new life…We must be…broken…to grow into what we were made to be.” If you’re struggling to see the “good” in your situation, hear this: “He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end…Not only that, but all the broken…dislocated pieces…people and things…get properly fixed and fit together…because of his death” (vv. 18-20 MSG).