When You Wonder What’s So Good about Good Friday

Have you ever wondered what is so good about Good Friday? My dear friend, Katie joins us this week with powerful words emploring us to not skip to Easter Morning without understanding Good Friday.

It is a day that represents torture, pain, death, and abandonment. It is a day where darkness reigns and death triumphs. It is a day where the guilty go free and the innocent die. It is a day where the created kills the Creator without remorse. It is a day where hopelessness prevails and evil wins.

Nothing about this day seemed right or sensible at the time, but it was good. 

It was good because on the day we remember as Good Friday, a debt was forgiven. This debt was no small sum. On this day, the sins of all mankind were placed on the shoulders of a sinless man that chose to die so others might be free and come back into right relationship with God Almighty.

Why God Required Good Friday

In the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve corrupted what God had made good and allowed sin to enter into the world. Yet, through the gracious sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, this curse was reversed and the possibility of good was reinstated. It is through his death and resurrection that we can be restored to our Creator if we so choose to confess our sins to him and seek his forgiveness. Friends, this day is good. It is good, but it is not without cost. In the same way, Jesus died for all sin, so we must die to the sin in our lives.

Though this death may be gruesome and painful, it is freeing, it is holy and it too is good. 

You Can’t Skip Good Friday

As I sat and thought about the Easter story in past weeks, a friend asked me to wonder what it would have been like for the first followers-those that didn’t know the ending of the story. The people who witnessed Good Friday firsthand but found nothing good in it because they had yet to witness the Resurrection. As I thought and wondered, my thoughts formed into this. It is a poem written from the perspective of Mary Magdalene on Easter morning. It is the day that her fears subside and she realizes just what good can come from the death of Jesus.

When He Speaks

First dead. Now he’s gone. It’s wrong.
This shouldn’t be.
He saved me himself, so why couldn’t he
Come down from that tree?
Spare his shame, stop their game?
Bring forth a new kingdom? 
Begin his new reign?

That’s why he came, right?
The Messiah. The One.
To save all our people? 
Help us overcome?

But it’s empty- the tomb- where his body should be.
Why?  Was it lies?  Was I fool to believe?

In a flash I think back where I first met his eyes.
When my hatred dissolved, when I first felt alive.
See for seasons, seven demons tore me apart.
From the inside I died in my soul and my heart.
They promised me freedom, yet bound me in chains.
In my own search for peace I found nothing but pain.

But then peace found me as I called out his name.

Or so I thought.

But I’m here and my fears overwhelm me again.
“They have taken the Lord,” I cried out to the men.
Now they’ve left and I sit in the pools of my grief.
My hope fully shattered.
Here dies my belief.

“Woman, why do you cry? Who do you look for?
“They’ve taken my Lord,” I sob to the men with bright robes and swords.
Then comes the gardener.
He asks me again.
“If you carried him off, say where you put him!”

My cries grow frantic,
I’m blinded with fear.
A storm rises in me.
The old voices jeer:

“You’re worthless.
You’re broken.
No one could save you.
You’re lost.
Without hope.
You were never made new.”
The lies grow louder. I’m coming unglued.

“Mary.”

He speaks and all becomes still.
The storm, the fears, the demons, my will
all bow to that voice
My soul starts to breathe.
My hope starts to bloom.
Could it really be?

It’s the teacher. My Master.
My Lord. Rabboni.
He has conquered the grave, my sins and the lies.
He has conquered it all.
My God is alive.

This cloak of death that I’ve worn all my days
no longer fits, in no way sustains.
He left his shrouds when he mastered the grave
So I’ll hang up mine, I’ll make the trade.
I’m now clothed in his righteousness, washed in his grace

Saved.

I’m free. Whole. Completely made new.
If he did it for me, he can do it for you.

Katie Chew

That’s what’s so good about Good Friday!

Without it, we would still be covered in the mess of our sin and shame with no hope of becoming the masterpiece God created us to be!

Have you ever wondered what's so good about Good Friday? #goodfriday #EasterSunday #Easter Click To Tweet

For more on what’s so good about Good Friday, read Good Friday in 20 Words, or how Easter completes our salvation story, read Cradle, Cross, Crown.

Meet Katie

Katie is a wife and stay-at-home mom of three preschoolers. Most of her time is spent outside or in imaginary worlds. In rare moments of free time, she loves to read, paint and write.