What's So Good about Good Friday?
I love Easter Sunday. I love the way my church's normally casual congregation takes everything up a notch (or three)—the girls in new linen dresses and the boys in once-a-year ties. I love the jubilance of the music, and the preacher's grin when he urges us to turn to one another and say, "He is risen!"
Easter Sunday is the Christian faith's gold medal victory lap and its raison d'etre. It's the Happily Ever After to end all happily ever afters. Easter Sunday shouts: "Death where is thy sting?" and "Love wins!" and "God is alive!"
But here's the rub: I dread Good Friday. I dread the images of torture and suffering. I dread the somber music and the awful remembrance of the violent death of a loved one—of Jesus, the Loved One. I dread the smothering grief and the inescapable remorse and the terrible recollected cry, "My God, why hast thou forsaken me?"
Left to my own devices, I'd probably skip Good Friday. But I suspect that if I did, Easter morning would become increasingly hollow. I'd forget how much my salvation cost.
What's more, I'm pretty sure my Good Friday avoidance would cause me to lose touch with certain realities about the way the universe works on this side of eternity. I'd start to believe that you can have victory without sacrifice. I'd convince myself that you don't have to die to live the resurrection. I'd buy the lie that Christ's ultimate victory over death—and my decision to follow him—means life on this earth will be trouble-free.
The biblical writers warn us repeatedly that the Christian should not expect a life exempt from Good Fridays. They encourage us to consider every hardship pure joy because suffering is an opportunity to identify with Christ and become more dependent on him (James 1:2-4). They repeat Christ's plainspoken invitation to "take up his cross" (Mark 8:34-35).
And yet for many of us Easter Sunday Christians, when the job is lost, or the tumor is malignant, or the friendship is betrayed, we grieve not only the wound but also the fact that we can be wounded. We feel that either we're not doing faith right or that faith—that Jesus—has let us down. We don't consider it "pure joy" when our faith is tested. We consider it failure.
I'm beginning to think our expectations are not just unrealistic, they're anti-gospel. But our confusion is hardly surprising. According to some experts, we're bombarded with more than 3,000 advertisements a day, telling us we're entitled to (and must pursue at any cost) an easy, ageless, worry-free life. When we meet and accept Jesus, many of us can't help but distort his promise of abundant life into something that resembles the illusion advertisers sell us every day.
So how do we become Easter Sunday Christians who truly see (and even embrace) the good in our Good Fridays? How do we resist our sense of entitlement and the distorted expectations that are so deeply ingrained? I've found the following four principles helpful.
Originally published in: Today's Christian Woman, 2009, March/April, Vol. 31, Issue 2, Page 35
Related Topics:
Death, Easter, Good Friday, Grief, Hope, Loss, pain, Trust
More from Carolyn Arends:
Kyria.com | Books
Join the Kyria.com Community!
Become a member to have access to the following:
- Full access to hundreds of other articles for thoughtful, influential women
- The monthly Kyria digizine, each issue focusing on a spiritual discipline or theme
- 20 percent discount on all of the downloadable resources in the Kyria Store
downloadable guides
Prayer and Meditation
Cultivating a deeper relationship with God.
Ministering to Working Women
How your women's ministry can better meet the needs of women who work outside the home.Browse More Guides
back to top
Average User Rating:
Displaying 1–5 of 10 comments.
See all comments
Anonymous
Dearest Carolyn: How simply beautiful are your words. They pierced my very spirit and made me appreciated the wonder of Christ sufferings for us in a new light. Jesus told us himself that in this world we would have tribulations, but not to fear for He has overcome it. What sweet release for us! Never once do we ask the Lord, "How may I suffer for You today?" Rather, it's the opposite. My husband of 20 years passed recently due to lung cancer. The "good" in it was that he gave his life to Christ and died gloriously never once asking "why me?" His final words were, "If God is ready for me to come home, I am ready!" That's what suffering does...it is grace disguised for we are called to suffer and some are chosen to show us how to do it with grace. Thank you. My name is Carolyn too.
Barbara
I made a copy of this one for me and our family. Because we believe he himself was tempted yet never sin, and was willing to die for our sins, because he was the Son of God he rose from the grave on Easter morning. I lost both my parents to cancer, and they were examples of God's love, mercy and grace. My children and I miss them very much, but we know they are resting in peace with our Lord now.
Sandy
Wow. This really hits home with me. We have such a tendency to believe that because we love God and He's in charge that we'll never suffer or fail. What a wonderful reminder about the blessings that come from failure and pain. Prayers coming for you and your mom.
Barb
Amen, You are right about how hard it is to hear and know how absolutely violent a death Jesus faced for us, but the light of hope just floods Resurrection Morning.
Pat
Well said and well timed. We all love the Easter mornings but we have to have the Good Fridays to appreciate them. God Bless you and your mother during this difficult time.
Rate & Comment on this article *