Why do we call it “Good” Friday?

It was the single most horrible day in the history of the world. No incident has ever been more tragic.  No suffering has ever been so unfitting. No human has ever been so unjustly treated, because no other human has ever been so worthy of praise.  

Man meant this day for evil.  “Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed” (Psalm 2:1-2).

Judas meant it for evil. “Then one of the twelve, whose name was Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?” And they paid him thirty pieces of silver. And from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him.” (Matthew 26:15)

Jewish leaders meant it for evil.  “the chief priests and scribes” would “condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified.  (Matthew 20:18,19).

Pilate meant it for evil.  “The band of soldiers and their captain and the officers of the Jews” arrested him and delivered him to Pilate (John 18:12).  Pilate was cornered. He washed his hands as a show and “released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified” (Matthew 27:26; Mark 15:15).

The Jewish people meant it for evil.  “You delivered [Jesus] over and denied [him] in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him. But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead.” – Peter (Acts 3:13-15)

Jews AND Gentiles mean it for evil.  “Truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel” (Acts 4:27).  

YOU meant it for evil.  We see our own evil, even as we see through the blackness of this Friday to the light of God’s goodness: we delivered him over. “Christ died for our sins” (1 Corinthians 15:3). Jesus was “delivered up for our trespasses” (Romans 4:25). He “gave himself for our sins” (Galatians 1:4). “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24). 

What we meant for evil, God meant for good.

God meant it for good.  Jesus was “delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23). And as the early Christians would pray, “Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, [did] whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place” (Acts 4:27–28).  God was at work, doing his greatest good in our most horrible evil.  Never has Joseph’s banner flown so truly as it did on that day: what man meant for evil, God meant for good (Genesis 50:20).

God wrote “good” on the single worst day in the history of the world. And there is not one day — or week, month, year, or lifetime of suffering — not one trauma, not one loss, not one virus, not one pain, momentary or chronic, over which God cannot write “good” for you in Christ Jesus.  God himself “did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not with him graciously give us all things” for our everlasting good (Romans 8:32).

So we call this day as God did, “Good Friday.”Let’s get together tonight….  Call in at 7:00 pm please!

• Dial 857-444-6500 at 7:00 pm
• Enter the ID Code: 845-101-528 when prompted
• You are in with us!

How are you?  Please reply to this email with your testimony and prayer request.  Thanks.

Please send all church offerings to: CLC, PO Box 91, Colchester, CT 06415. Thank you.

Pastor Mike Brubaker, DMin