That Day Which is Called “Good”

by Brett Manero

Almost every year, the question of “why do we call Good Friday good?” comes up. It’s a fair question. After all, it’s the commemoration of the most horrific act ever committed by people to another person: the unjust, unlawful, and thoroughly corrupt execution of the greatest man who ever lived, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He had committed no crime, hurt no other person. He had healed people, loved people, and raised the dead. Everything which He did was for the good of others and for the glory of God. Why is the day when Christians commemorate His death considered good?

When one has lived long enough, one understands just how incredibly horrible the world, and people, can be. People can be so cruel, unkind, corrupt, self-seeking, even sadistic. One can experience betrayal even by friends. The world is not a kind or merciful place, most of the time. I don’t mean for this to sound overly cynical or pessimistic, but I do consider it to be realistic. The terrible reality is that we live in a very broken, a very hurting, a very messed up world. All of us will realize this, sooner or later. I personally call this “holy cynicism” or perhaps more accurately, “holy realism.” And no one experienced the brunt of the cruelty of this world more than Jesus of Nazareth, in c. 33 AD, when He was unjustly condemned and executed under the governorship of Pontius Pilate, Roman governor of Judea-Palestine.

So, why is it called good? This is where faith comes in, and where the genius of the Christian faith shines forth. God can take any evil, any terrible situation, any tragedy, and use it for good. When you and I sin, we should not despair, for God can use it for good. When we make a huge mistake in whatever situation in life, we should not despair: God can use it for good. When we feel immense regret about things we did or didn’t do in our past, we should not despair: God can use it for good. A curse is turned into a blessing. This is exactly why the Cross is the enduring symbol of the Christian religion: God used an instrument of torture and death and used it for the greatest good. God took the murder of His only Son and used it for the greatest good: the redemption of the human race, so long enslaved by sin and death. Jesus, being both God and man, brilliantly used the horrors of His unjust death and offered it up to the Father as an offering for every sin ever committed in human history: past, present, and future. God took that greatest evil in all of history, and used it – as only He can do – to reconcile us with Him, to give us hope for salvation, and to make it possible to find our way back to Him again.

It was also, of course, spoken of for centuries by the Prophets. Most famously, Isaiah gives a hauntingly accurate prophecy of the death of Christ in his suffering servant songs. Isaiah wrote in c. 700 BC:

Surely he has borne our griefs
    and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
    smitten by God, and afflicted.
 But he was wounded for our transgressions,
    he was bruised for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that made us whole,
    and with his stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:4-5)

Isaiah says so much more, but perhaps for me, the most striking detail is when He even predicts Jesus’ burial in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy member of the Jewish leadership council:

And they made his grave with the wicked
    and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
    and there was no deceit in his mouth. (Isaiah 53:9)

God loves us so much, and wanted so much for us to see how perfectly Jesus fulfills the Prophets, that He even gave us that detail. As if that’s not enough, the Prophet Zechariah wrote in c. 518 BC:

And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of compassion and supplication, so that, when they look on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a first-born. (Zechariah 12:10)

Even one who is vaguely familiar with the Passion of Christ will see here an obvious prophecy of the piercing of Jesus’ side. It was all hauntingly and beautifully foretold by the Prophets for centuries. God foresaw the greatest evil that would ever be committed, and He likewise also foresaw the greatest good that would come from it. Hence, Good Friday.