Reflection: A Tale of Three Good Fridays

A Tale of Three Good Fridays”

  

There are many ways of looking at the momentous events of Good Friday.  I want to do it today by looking at three different aspects illustrated by three personal stories.

I remember in the early days I our marriage my wife and I going for a walk together one Friday morning when we were off work. We went past the local URC Church and saw people coming out and we were puzzled.  Then we suddenly realised it was Good Friday and we had completely forgotten.

Good Friday is just a holiday to most people, its nothing special to them.  Some of them don’t understand or care that Jesus died on cross for them.  Others don’t even know what Good Friday is.

One of thieves on cross didn’t see Good Friday as special.  He was being executed and bitter towards world, he mocked Jesus because he didn’t understand who Jesus was and what he was doing.

When I was younger, aged around 9 or 10, couldn’t understand why Good Friday called Good Friday.  As a child the fact that Jesus died in agony on cross didn’t seem good to me.  I asked my Sunday School teachers about it but I didn’t really understand their answers.  I came to conclusion it was one of those adult things I’d get one day.

The second thief on cross probably didn’t think the original Good Friday was very good.  He was nailed to a Roman cross, suffering same physical agony as Jesus.  He seems different to the other thief because he recognised something special about Jesus.  He berates the other thief for mocking Jesus because they deserved to die but Jesus had done nothing wrong.  Then says to Jesus, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.”

The thief, like so many before him, recognises that there is something different about Jesus; that he has a very special and unique status in the eyes of God.  This isn’t ordinary man dying next to him, it is somebody who can grant him a place in paradise.

As child didn’t really understand who Jesus was and is, like so many today.  I thought he was a good man and a good teacher.  I didn’t really understand he was God himself, that Jesus was fully human and fully God.  When I did understand this I began to understand why Good Friday is called good; because it is the day when God made it possible for me to know his love for me and sinners like me.

For the second thief Good Friday became good because Jesus said to him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”  His belief about who Jesus was confirmed by Jesus words.

Finally I remember a Good Friday service at Poulton Methodist Church, about two years before I started training for Ordained Ministry.  As the Minister preached his sermon God granted me a vision of Jesus on the cross.  It wasn’t from any painting or film I’d ever seen.  It was as if I’d been momentarily transported back in time to that Calvary hill and I saw that pain on Jesus’ face and Jesus’ love for me in his eyes. 

There are many theories about what Jesus on cross, about how our sins are forgiven and our relationship with God restored.  There are house brick sized densely argued theological books on subject.  None of theories provide complete answer and in a sense it doesn’t matter how Jesus’ death brought forgiveness of sins – the important truth for us is that it does.

On cross Jesus said, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing!”  For many, many years we have been taught in countless sermons that in those words Jesus was forgiving those who were killing him and so he was.  But we must remember that we are as responsible as those who nailed Jesus to the cross for his death; he died for our sins.  Jesus was praying God’s forgiveness for us too when he said, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing!”

Because Jesus loves us he died on the cross so that our sins could be forgiven.  Good Friday is good not because Jesus died but because he died for us.