Significance of Good Friday

— Aziz-ul Haque Good Friday is considered to be a very memorable day. It is because on a day like this, about two thousand years ago, Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world gave his own life for salvation of mankind. The name ‘Good Friday’ derived from ‘God’s Friday’ as ‘good-bye’ derived from ‘God be with you’. It is ‘good’ because on this day the barrier of sin was broken. It is observed on the Friday before Easter or the Resurrection Day of Jesus. The date of the first Good Friday is very difficult to ascertain. However, many scholars believe that this event took place on April 7 of AD 30. The date of Good Friday changes every year. The reason for this variation in the date is due to its calculation from the lunar calendar rather than our most known solar or Gregorian calendar. Therefore it occurs between March 20 and April 23 on the Friday before Easter. This day is marked with solemn worship service in churches all over the world. Many Christians spend this day in fasting, prayer, repentance, and meditation on the agony and suffering of Jesus on the cross.

The Bible unfolds the plan of God for salvation of mankind. Accordingly, through the ages, God sent sages, saints and prophets to the world for the benefit of mankind as well as to show the way of salvation. They taught man to repent and to lead a devout life in obedience to God. But the righteous God cannot just bypass man’s sin that was inherited from Adam and Eve, the first patents who violated God’s commandment. An appropriate remedy had to be taken. Thus it became necessary to establish a sacrificial order for the atonement of sin. To complete and to give the ultimate form for the redemption of man, God sent Jesus Christ as the Saviour of the world who became our ransom and guarantor. Even hundreds of years before the advent of Jesus, it had been prophesied from time to time that he would come to sacrifice himself for the redemption of mankind, and Jesus himself, when he was in the world, proclaimed this many times. Good Friday is the day when all these were fulfilled.

On the night before Good Friday, Jesus was arrested and tried in a mock trial which continued till the Friday morning. He was whipped and spat on his face and a crown made of thorns was mockingly placed on his head and finally he was sentenced to death. Palestine was then a Roman colony. According to Roman practice, capital punishment was carried out by nailing the convict on a cross shaped wooden scaffold set up in an open place. Cicero, the great Roman statesman described crucifixion as the most cruel and revolting punishment. Nails were driven through the hands and feet, and the victim was left there in agony, starvation, insufferable thirst and excruciating convulsions of pain. Jesus was forced to carry his own cross to the place of execution. He was so weak after the scourging that he could not carry the cross all the way. Therefore the Roman soldiers pulled a man called Simon of Cyrene from the crowd and forced him to carry Jesus’ cross the rest of the way. The crucifixion of Jesus was carried out on a hill near Jerusalem called Calvary in Latin and Golgotha in Hebrew. After hanging for nearly six hours on the cross, he died. Latter, the body of Jesus was brought down from the cross and buried according to the prevalent custom.

God reveals what he is by what he does. Good Friday – in other words the atoning death of Jesus Christ reveals the infinite love and grace of God for humankind. The Bible says, “God shows his love for us that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us’. Therefore, Good Friday is good, because it is the ultimate act of love of God for salvation of mankind. What could be better than that? Jesus was completely sinless and innocent. But he died taking the penalty of our sins, so that we might be saved. By enduring all guilt and slander and by giving his own life as a price for our redemption, he prepared the way for our reconciliation with God and with one another. Therefore, the death of Jesus was vicarious. That means he did not die merely as an event in history, nor did he die for his own sake. But he died for us. The death of Jesus is the ground of forgiveness by God of man’s sins.

Violence assaults our world on every hand. Personal violence, domestic violence, lence, religious violence, ethnic violence and national violence has escalated to unprecedented proportions. Then what does Good Friday signify to day in a world of increasing conflict and violence? Most victims would curse and scream on the cross before they die. But Jesus died with a prayer for those who nailed him on the cross, saying, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do”. In a world that is torn and shaken by conflict, the death of Jesus Christ or Good Friday summons us to be loving, tolerant, forgiving, selfless and compassionate and to spread the message of peace and reconciliation in the society. Forgiveness heals our hurts and injuries and reconciles us with one another. It is a sad story that Jesus was killed. But the story has very happy ending, because on the third day of his death, which is called Easter or Resurrection Day, he rose from the dead and was taken up to heaven after forty days, thereby proving that he is the living one. Therefore, Good Friday brings us a feeling of assurance, for all those burdened with the pain of sin and death that will be overcome by his abounding love manifested on the cross.
(The writer is pastor of Guwahati Baptist Church). ASSAM TRIBUNE