What is Good Friday and why do we call Good Friday “good,” when it is such a dark and bleak event commemorating a day of suffering and death for Jesus?
For Christians, Good Friday is a crucial day of the year because it celebrates what we believe to be the most momentous weekend in the history of the world. Ever since Jesus died and was raised, Christians have declared the cross and resurrection of Jesus to be the decisive turning point for all creation. Paul considered it to be “of first importance” that Jesus died for our sins, was buried, and was raised to life on the third day, all in accordance with what God had promised all along in the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3).
On Good Friday we remember the day Jesus willingly suffered and died by crucifixion as the ultimate sacrifice for our sins (1 John 1:10). It is followed by Easter, the glorious celebration of the day Jesus was raised from the dead, heralding his victory over sin and death and pointing ahead to a future resurrection for all who are united to him by faith (Romans 6:5).
Still, why call the day of Jesus’ death “Good Friday” instead of “Bad Friday” or something similar? Some Christian traditions do take this approach: in German, for example, the day is called Karfreitag, or “Mourning Friday.” In English, in fact, the origin of the term “Good” is debated: some believe it developed from an older name, “God’s Friday.” Regardless of the origin, the name Good Friday is entirely appropriate because the suffering and death of Jesus, as terrible as it was, marked the dramatic culmination of God’s plan to save his people from their sins.
After undergoing a series of tribunals and enduring extensive torture and mockery, Jesus was nailed to a cross—crucified—at approximately 9:00 a.m. on Friday morning.
Crucifixion was a deliberately slow and excruciating form of execution in which a condemned person was nailed to a cross and left there until they died. After hanging on the cross for a few hours, the offender would become unable to lift themselves up to breathe. They would eventually perish from slow suffocation.
After six hours of intense suffering, Jesus died at around three in the afternoon. His body was taken off the cross and he was buried in the borrowed tomb of a wealthy man named Joseph of Arimathea.
It is difficult to overstate the significance of the crucifixion within Christian tradition. Christians believe that when Jesus—who had lived a sinless life—died, he took on all of humanity’s sin and the penalty toward it.
Within Christian understanding, Jesus’ death allows each of us to pursue a personal relationship with God. We can ask for forgiveness of our sins, receive it, and have a restored relationships with God. The apostle Paul explains, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Seven hundred years earlier, the prophet Isaiah foretold the event:
Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.21
It is no wonder that Christians are deeply moved when they remember Jesus’ suffering and sacrifice—a sacrifice made for each of us.
Good Friday Bible Verses
Romans 5:6-10 – “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!”
1 Peter 2:24 – “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”
Isaiah 53:3-5 – “He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.”