Good/Bad Friday

I've always wondered about calling the day that Jesus died "good" Friday. Today represents the day when Jesus was crucified, when he took on all the sins of the world, when he faced the wrath of God, when he suffered and died. None of that is good. It was painful and terrible.

What's more is that he did it for us. Jesus took our punishment. He paid our penalty because he knew there was no way we could ever do it ourselves. When God's wrath against sin came down, it fell on Jesus instead of us! We can't understand what that felt like. God will never leave us or forsake us, but he did forsake Jesus. God turned away because he couldn't bear the sight of all that sin.

The good news is that we can have fellowship with God now because we are now considered sinless and spotless. You and I don't ever have to suffer like that. Jesus took our place once and for all. But that makes me a guilty party, which certainly doesn't make me feel "good". My sins nailed him to the cross! I nailed him to the cross. I was the reason he had to die. Think of every sin you've ever done and every sin you've heard about or witnessed weighing down on Jesus. Picture God's disgust as he turned away and left Jesus, his only Son, completely and utterly alone.

When I get that mental image in my head, I don't want to call it Good Friday. Jesus was there suffering and abandoned, paying the penalty for my sins. Don't get me wrong- I am eternally grateful!! Jesus died for us because it was the ONLY way for us to get to God. We wouldn't be able to go to heaven or have a relationship with God if Jesus hadn't destroyed the barrier of sin that separated us from Him.

I understand why people call today Good Friday. I guess I'm just looking at it from a different perspective this year. Sometimes people seem to have a cavalier attitude about it- "Jesus died for my sins. Yay! That's good!" Yes, I think we should be grateful, but I also think we should be humbled. The Creator of the Universe had to die for our sins. When I think of every way Jesus suffered that day, it goes down as one of the worst days in history in my mind. Yet that makes his love for us even more precious, more divine, more absolute, and more unconditional. I think we have to realize the full impact of what Jesus did for us before we can fully appreciate his love and his sacrifice. It was a Bad Friday, but that only makes what He did for us that much more awesome and magnificent- and altogether incomprehensible.