God's Friday, Good Friday, Holy Friday...

I recently read a BBC article about why Good Friday is called Good Friday.

I found it interesting that some would say that linguistically, “Good” is a corruption of the word, “God’s” - so it was originally God’s Friday.

I also learned that “the earliest known use of "guode friday" is found in The South English Legendary, a text from around 1290, according to the dictionary. According to the Baltimore Catechism - the standard US Catholic school text from 1885 to the 1960s, Good Friday is good because Christ "showed His great love for man, and purchased for him every blessing".

It's also interesting to me (maybe not to everybody) that both Orthodox and Roman Catholic traditions often refer to the entire week between Palm Sunday and Easter as “Holy Week” - hence, “Holy Friday”.

I’m reminded of something I learned in one of my seminary Biblical Interpretation classes: words are just combinations of symbols to communicate meaning.

My point is that whether you call it Good, Holy, God’s, or just “Friday” - the meaning is the same. For Jesus followers, it’s “all the above”. 

With that said - here’s why I think it matters for Easter Sunday…

• Some people may say that Jesus never really died or that his body was switched before the crucifixion and somebody else died.
• Others may say that Jesus’ death on a cross doesn’t matter at all.
• Yet, I personally know some people who believe that Jesus wasn’t God at all.
• If you're like me, I find today more of less a mystery.

And that’s why God’s, Good, and Holy Friday matters to Easter. It’s a mystery. It cannot be explained. It cannot be reasoned.

• Out of pain and suffering comes renewal.
• Out of punishment comes promise.
• Out of thirst comes satisfaction.
• Out of isolation comes family.
• Out of vengeance comes reconciliation.
• Out of separation comes unity.
• Out of doubt comes conviction.
• Out of death comes life.

And Jesus did it all for you. So that however we experience the brokenness of our human experience, the mysteries that make today God’s Friday… a Good Friday… a Holy Friday… matter because to get to the supernatural and mysterious reality of Sunday’s hope, peace, and joy - we must experience the mystery of Friday.