What’s So Good About Good Friday?

Some might ask, “Isn’t Good Friday the day Jesus died? How could that ever be called good?”And the truth is, if you were standing there that day, it didn’t look good at all. It looked like the end.

There were no choirs singing. No preachers hooping. No one trying to shout the house or rush to the front and dance. The followers of Jesus weren’t smiling — they were crushed. The sky turned black. The earth shook.

Hope seemed lost. And if you were living it in real time, it looked like evil had won.

And yet, here we are, calling it Good Friday.

It’s good — not because of how it felt.

It’s good — not because of how it looked.

It’s good — because of what it produced.

Good Friday is good because Jesus didn’t just die — He decided to die.

He wasn't forced. He wasn't tricked. He wasn't outnumbered.

He said Himself, “No one takes my life from me. I lay it down of my own accord” (John 10:18).

He chose to endure the betrayal.

He chose to endure the beating.

He chose to endure the Cross.

And He did it knowing exactly what it would cost Him so that we could live.

But did they understand the cost? (Alexa, play Alabaster Box by CeCe Winans) By all accounts, they should have, because Jesus did tell His disciples multiple times that He would suffer, die, and rise again in three days. Just go read Matthew 16:21, Mark 8:31, Luke 9:22 — Some of it is even in red, He was very clear.

The problem wasn’t that He didn’t tell them — the problem was they couldn’t process it.

Their grief, confusion, fear, and shattered expectations made it almost impossible for them to fully grasp or believe it in the moment. So when Friday hit and they saw Him beaten, humiliated, and dead — their minds and hearts couldn't hold onto His words.

Grief clouded their faith.

It wasn’t that they didn’t know — it was that they were too grieved to believe.

And that’s something we know all too well in our community. Because we know what it is to hear a Word and still feel the weight of heavy grief, disappointment, and loss. Sometimes you know what God said, but when the pain hits, when the bottom falls out, when the dream looks dead — it’s hard to hold onto it.

As for the crowd — the religious leaders, the soldiers, the general public: They didn’t believe at all. They either rejected His claims outright or didn't understand them. They thought they were shutting down a problem — not witnessing a victory.

Good Friday reminds us that the pain was necessary for the promise to be fulfilled. There would be no empty tomb without a bloody cross first. There would be no Sunday morning without a Friday afternoon.

In our culture today, we often rush straight to the shout. We want the celebration without sitting in the sorrow. But if you were there on the first Good Friday, there was no shout. There was no hoop. There was nothing but hurt. The ones who loved Jesus the most were hurt to their core. They didn’t know how to hold on. All they knew was grief. All they felt was loss.

And yet — even in what looked like defeat — God was still working. Even in the silence, the plan kept moving forward. Even in the darkness, redemption was being secured.

Good Friday is good because the worst thing that could have happened, happened to Him — not to us.

It’s good because Jesus made a conscious choice to stand in our place. It’s good because even in death, God’s purpose could not be stopped.

So when we sit in the heaviness of Good Friday, we don’t have to rush past it. We don’t have to pretend it didn’t hurt. We don’t have to act like it wasn’t real.

We sit in it — and we remember:

The pain had a purpose.

The cross had a cause.

And even when it looked like death had the final word, God was setting up a greater victory.

So what’s so good about Good Friday? It’s not that Jesus died.

It’s that Jesus chose to die — so that we could choose to live.

And even now, when life hits us hard and sorrow feels heavy, we can still stand on this truth:

Sunday is still coming.