Have you ever wondered why the Church chose to give the name of the annual date it recognizes the death of Jesus as Good Friday? It appears to be the worse oxymoron ever composed!!! Why the cross, why is it so important, and how can it possibly be Good?

[Mark 15.37-40]

37 And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. 38 And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. 39 And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”

40 There were also women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome.

[ WHAT ] is this passage saying and what is a key truth or thought that we learn?

+ John 19:30 states Jesus’s loud cry before dying was “it is finished”. What do you think He meant and in what tone was it given?

+ Crucifixion is widely believed to be the most barbaric form of capital punishment ever devised by man. Why would God allow Jesus to die in such a way? What do you make of Isaiah 53:10 which states “Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief”. How can you explain this to a non-believer?

+ What is the significance of “the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom” upon the death of Jesus? What is the significance of the testimony given by the centurion standing guard that day? Read John 12:32 for some help.

[ HOW ] is the Lord calling me to action/obedience?

+ Is there sin to confess or a next step to take? How has it gone since last time?

+ I don’t think we truly can comprehend what took place on that first Good Friday on this side of eternity. David Guzick, in his commentary on Mark 15, summarizes it this way:

“At some point before He died, before the veil was torn in two before He cried out it is finished, an awesome spiritual transaction took place. God the Father set upon Jesus all the guilt and wrath our sin deserved, and Jesus bore it in Himself perfectly, totally satisfying the wrath of God toward us. On the cross, Jesus became, as it were, an enemy of God who was judged and forced to drink the cup of the Father’s fury. He did it so that we would not have to drink that cup. The death of Jesus on the cross was and is the ultimate demonstration of God’s love towards all mankind (Romans 5:8). It is the power of God unto salvation, though it seems foolish to those who reject it (1 Corinthians 1:18). At the cross, Jesus wiped out our record of sin and rebellion against God, nailing it to the cross (Colossians 2:14). If Jesus had not endured the cross, it might be said that there is a limit to God’s love, that there was something God could have done but was unwilling to do in order to demonstrate His love for man”.

I loved Joey’s sermon on Palm Sunday when he posed the question “who but God would take the utter worse mankind had to offer in violent torturing and murdering of His Only Begotten Son and turn it into the greatest display of heavenly love and the centerpiece of His redemptive plan for all humanity”!!!

Heavenly Father, we see your magnificence and your awesomeness as we ponder the universe You created. You alone are God and are worthy of all praise for you certainly are GREAT in power and majesty. But Lord, you are also so, so GOOD, and nowhere is that more on display than in the length and breadth of the love you lavished on us in the plan of redemption you crafted within the Godhead before the foundation of the world. May the sacrifice Jesus made on our behalf spur us to tell others of this GOOD news!!!

“For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2).

[ WHO ] am I walking with and praying for to discover Jesus?

+ What is my next step?