Holy Friday - Good Friday

Why is today called Good Friday? Did you know that Jesus’s crucifixion was described with precision accuracy in several places of the Old Testament with? Did you know that the worst physical experience for Jesus happened before the crucifixion?

We are celebrating this Holy Week from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday by describing each day of that week as it is depicted in the Bible. Today is Holy Friday or Good Friday. This is the day that we recognize the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

Keep in mind, that we can’t be too dogmatic about actual days of specific events in the Bible. The Jews and Romans had different standards for time/date keeping and the Bible isn’t always in exact chronological order.

Why Is It Called Good Friday?

Jesus was stripped, scourged, a crown of thorns forced unto His head, mocked, spat upon, flogged, forced to carry His own cross, and then crucified on this day. So why is it called Good Friday? Actually, because of the series of events, some call today Black Friday.

It should be noted just how much of a horrible experience being scourged was. This experience usually ended in death. The following is a description of scourging and is what Jesus went through before He was crucified.

“Under the Roman method of "scourging," the person was stripped and tied in a bending posture to a pillar, or stretched on a frame. The "scourge" was made of leather thongs, weighted with sharp pieces of bone or lead, which tore the flesh of both the back and the breast.” (Vine’s Expository Dictionary).

It’s called Good Friday because of the result of Jesus’s scourging and crucifixion, not because of it. The result was that Jesus paid the price for our sins. It’s called Good Friday due to our salvation, not because of the horrid experience Jesus had to go through to achieve it.

It is believed that Good Friday is a corruption of the term God Friday. Corruptions such as this is not uncommon. For example, “Goodbye” is a corruption of “God Be With Ye”.

The BBC reports, “The earliest known use of "guode friday" (Good Friday) is found in The South English Legendary, a text from around 1290”.

What Good Friday Achieved

“For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.” (Romans 5:6-9).

“For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ: Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.” (1 Peter 3:18-22)

To read the telling of the events go to Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23, and John 19

Prophecy

Not only was Jesus’s crucifixion foretold in the Bible, it was also described centuries in advance.

Psalm 22

Psalm 22 was described by the 19^th century theologian and Pastor Charles Spurgeon; “This is beyond all others THE PSALM OF THE CROSS. It may have been actually repeated word by word by our Lord when hanging on the tree; it would be too bold to say that it was so, but even a casual reader may see that it might have been.”

Psalm 22 begins with the bone chilling words, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”. Hundreds of years later Jesus Christ, while on the cross, would say those exact same words.

“And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46)

Psalm 22 accurately describes events of the actual crucifixion as if it were taking place at that very moment. The detail of the Psalm can be quite astounding. For example:

“I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint” (Psalm 22:14)

“They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.” (Psalm 22:18).

Isaiah 52 and 53.

In Isaiah 52 we get a detailed description of how Jesus looked.

“As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men” (Isaiah 52:14)

Isaiah 53 details the point and purpose of Christ’s crucifixion. Go to Matthew 27 to see these things as they would play out.

“But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.” (Isaiah 53:5-11)

It has been noted that a reference to Jesus is made over 300 times in the Old Testament. It’s fascinating to think about considering the Bible is a composition of 66 books, 35 authors all written over a 1,500-1,600 year time period.

Bill Hitchcock