#ResurrectionReadingz What’s so “good” about Good Friday????

Disclaimer on the etymology of “good Friday”, the meaning is actually unknown. Nevertheless, there have been speculations that the phrase is derived from the medieval phrase “God Friday” or the other slightly less apparent meaning could be it was a good friday because it lead to the Resurrection. Today we will be focusing on the latter part. I just want to hone in on a few lessons I personally learn from this “Easter” period.

1. The first lesson one could learn, is that this is a showcase of Gods infinite ability to fulfil his promises. Just a small background of the Good Friday period, the Friday is typically deemed to be the day in which the process started perhaps this is because it’s the day we get the first bank holiday? I’m not really too sure where this opinion comes from, but the point is the process started right in the beginning - back in the Old Testament. God started theorising how he would save us literally the moment Adam & Eve sinned. The moment he realised we were separated because of our sin, he was too unsatisfied that he had to think of another way. A way that would involve a lot of sacrifice, a way that epitomised love, a way that truly encapsulated who God was. This way was the bring forth a Messiah. Okay, so let’s throw it back to the Old Testament - back to the days of King David this is where we get the first mention of the “anointed one”. Acts 3:18 reiterated “how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that Christ who is the Messiah would suffer”. So what am I trying to say??? Firstly I’m pretty sure that the people of David’s times 1000% thought that this Messiah would come in their time, but of course we now know he didn’t. This isn’t to say that God didnt fulfill his promises. It’s just to say that we should rest in his promises and that our confidence is in his promises. For me this just reaffirms that’s there is hope that God will ALWAYS come through. Equally, in the waiting period of our promises God will continue to remind us that he’s going to come through to us, he used multiple prophets to reiterate this, even after David the likes of Isaiah is even filled with specific reminders - 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." I think God honestly just wanted us to remember that he hadn’t forgotten about us and quite frankly he genuinely never will! It might take a while to actualise and it might not be on our time scale or the way we thought but nevertheless this forms the foundation of our faith. This is diverting our trust from ourselves and gives us something to put our faith in! Because at the end of the day, without Jesus Christ actually dying on the cross our whole faith becomes redundant.

2. The second reminder I can get is that there are both ‘good’ and better days to come. Due to the sacrifice Jesus made for us death and sin have no hold on us! We rest in the victory of Jesus Christ! Again going off the promises point, the bible is genuinely filled with prophecies that the latter days will be greater than the former. For example Peter 1:11, the Old Testament prophets predicted “the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow”. & I just feel like Good Friday is the perfect reminder because I can’t lie there was nothing inherently good about that Friday. A lot went on that was actually particularly bad. If we put ourselves in JC’s perspective for a small second we’ll actually realise it was a HARD DAY ( well period of time). A tough tough day - from Judas betraying him, to Peter denying him, to being arrested & him having to go before the Council. Literally just a jam-packed day of disappointment. A period of time where even Jesus ( who was the divine one) had to even question God for a moment. Like he was pleading God is there any other way??? Matthew 27:46 "About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" (which means "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?")". He pondered for a second then realised there was actually no other way, if he wasn’t to make this sacrifice we’d be doomed in sin for eternity. So that moment on the cross, he died to self - literally he called God "my God" meaning his side of a man came out & he decided to die for our sins!!! Literally he sacrificed everything, he laid down his life & give his blood as a ransom!! He died a death he didn’t deserve just so we would perhaps choose him. This act of love is so so so CRAZY to me honestly!! But

3. This leads me to my 3rd point, it’s just a reminder that again Gods in the process - what appears bad there is always a testimony coming at the end of it. There is pain in the process, but this is meant for a greater good. Sounds a lot simpler than life actually pans out! As it may be hard for us to find God in the midst of it all and it may be hard for us to conceive! Even so, it was hard for Jesus to conceive for a moment. Bottom line is God is good all the time!! Regardless of your trials or what you think you’re going through he definitely takes what the enemy meant for evil ( Jesus’ real life enemies ended up being his friends the likes of Peter and Judas, even those who screamed for him to be crucified) & he will ALWAYS turns it into good, but not just good - he turns it into our favour. like God will always make a way. I’m not sure what your “3 days” may look like, but this is just consolidation that God understands our suffering no matter what! Today (Good Friday) marks the day when wrath and mercy met at the cross, it shows that God extended his Grace to us by fulfilling the promise of giving us his only son (John 3:16). Now we have this Victory! This is the GOOD NEWS

Anyway, this is the first of the 3day Resurrection Readingz! Hope you were blessed xxx