I’ve often wondered why “Good Friday” is named as such.  “Good” seems so inappropriate doesn’t it?  How could we refer to the day our Savior was nailed to a cross with the same adjective we might use to describe, say, the newest flavor of Blue Bell?  It doesn’t make sense.  If it were up to me, I might re-name it “The Worst Friday in History.”

I can hardly bear to watch re-enactments of the crucifixion of Jesus.  The gruesomeness of it is almost too much to take.  So I cover my eyes.  Or look away, too uncomfortable with the scene before me.  And it’s not the blood that makes me sick to my stomach…I’m a nurse and therefore well acquainted.  It’s watching my Savior take the punishment that should have been mine…dying the death I deserved…

So I want to skip over Friday.  Let’s just go straight to Sunday then, straight to the Resurrection.  It’s a happy day and we celebrate with family dinners, Easter lilies, and new clothes.  Little ones carry their candy-filled baskets and the church says together, “He is risen!”  But a dear friend reminded me earlier this week, “There cannot be resurrection without death first.”

The very definition of resurrection is “to rise from the dead.”  So, no.  We can’t skip over Friday.  In fact, we would do well to look Friday square in the eyes, as Jesus did so many years ago.  Because as uncomfortable as it is, it’s reminds our hearts of his sacrifice and that our debt is paid in full.

“And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.  At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.  The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open.”  Matthew 27:50-52 NIV

With his last breath, Jesus transformed law into grace.  His death removed what once separated us from God.  No longer concealed, the most holy place became exposed for all eyes to see, for all hearts to enter.  No longer would lambs be led to atonement slaughter.  No longer would smoke linger in the air, a remnant of the burnt offering.  The position of the high priest was fulfilled once and for all by “the way, the truth and the life.”

And when those “tombs broke open,” we too were set free and dug out of our sin graves.  So, yes.  Good Friday is good indeed.