Someone once asked, What ‘s so “good” about Good Friday?
It is an interesting name, since so much bad took place that day. Then why is it “good”?
There is an older form of the word good which means holy. But also, appreciating Jesus as the “Lamb that takes away the sin of the world,” that makes it so holy that we can see eternal salvation coming from that act.
And certainly, the idea of the scapegoat or lamb of sacrifice upon which the sins of the people were placed and then atonement with God was accomplished — that is, a “at-one-ment”; or a “at-one-him-moment.”
Then one could say the sins were sent right back to the devil where they belong. What else can you do with sin? I mean, why would people kill one another like Cain killed Abel? We call it simply sin.
And wars? Sin!
And hatred and revenge? Sin!
It ‘s not excusing it; it is, rather, acknowledging this dreadful condition that corrupts and destroys, and yes even kills!
Probably everyone at some time in their life has both made someone else their scapegoat and has been someone else ‘s scapegoat — put the blame on someone else.
And the psalmist names it so well in the person who has become a scapegoat, and now that feels —
“For all my foes I am an object of reproach, a laughingstock to my neighbors, and a dread to my friends; they who see me abroad flee from me. I am forgotten like the unremembered dead; I am like a dish that is broken. But my trust is in you, O Lord.”
Good Friday! There is one — the Holy One — who accepted to be the Lamb upon which all sin was placed.
Hatred and jealousy and lies and shame — he allowed it! He willingly went to that hill upon which he was crucified. No one Gospel could capture it all, and so we are blessed with four renditions of it.
He surrendered. He felt detached from God ‘s mercy and love. He trusted fully. He loved and asked for forgiveness for the haters killing him. He never condemned or hated back. What a good and holy day, indeed!
