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✝️ Good Friday is highlighted as a central and often overlooked moment in the Christian calendar, representing Jesus’ crucifixion and sacrifice.
📖 The article encourages believers to reflect on Holy Week events rather than skipping from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday.
📞 Rev. Saul shares a personal act of reconciliation to illustrate the message of self-sacrifice and forgiveness taught by Jesus.
The Rev’d Canon Steven Saul
Retired Priest, Anglican Church in North America
If someone were to ask you which Christian calendar event (feast day) is most important to you, what would you say? For many, it is Christmas. That special day, remembered for the birth of Jesus, is by far the most popular. A local family I know loves Thanksgiving Day more than any other holiday. Although Thanksgiving is not tied directly to the Biblical narrative, our friends are very kind in inviting my family to join them for ‘turkey and dressing’ every year. They believe everyone needs a place “at the table” to break bread in fellowship and thank the Lord for our many blessings.
As a child, I remember the excitement of Easter Sunday and all the candy that my brothers and I anticipated. We typically rushed in competition to collect as many jelly beans and malted milk balls as possible, hidden in colorful plastic eggs. Easter Sunday or Resurrection Sunday, as I prefer to call it, takes the follower of Christ to the story of the empty tomb. We remember that Jesus was placed in a wealthy man’s burial plot on Good Friday. We reflect on the devastation his followers experienced from that day’s horrific events and read, “Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull. Here they crucified him [Jesus] and with him two others…Pilate [the Roman governor] had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: Jesus of Nazareth, The King of the Jews.” (John 19:17-19 New Intl. Version (NIV))
If asked what Christian event/celebration is most important to you, I am certain that most would not select the day I appreciate most: Good Friday. I contend that this day is critical we need to recognize it in a world broken by sin.
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In many Christian churches, the liturgical year places Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter, and Easter (just a week later) as “primary services” because they fall on the Christian sabbath – Sunday . In sanctuaries, altars are decorated with palm branches on Palm Sunday and in some traditions, worship attendees are given palm fronds to hold and scripture references are made to the Gospel of Mark.
We read in the Bible that Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem was emphasized with the shouts and praises of “Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” (Mark 11:9 NIV) And if our tradition of Christian faith does not appropriate time for tracing the steps of Jesus before Easter Sunday, then our worship may move directly from “Hosanna! Hosanna!” on Palm Sunday To “Alleluia! He is Risen, the Lord is Risen indeed!” (on Resurrection Sunday) – We should not miss the cross of Jesus.
The risk of removing the crucifixion journey Jesus took during what is called Holy Week leaves us potentially distanced and separated from what is the most crucial day, Good Friday. In liturgical traditions, Good Friday is a day that we remember Jesus going before Pontius Pilot. Although Jesus never sinned, executioners tormented, scourged, whipped and forced a crown of thorns on his head. Then, they brutally nailed his hands and feet to the hardwood of the cross.
The night before his crucifixion, Jesus had a final meal with his disciples, and he gave them last instructions. Following the meal, Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane, where he prayed for those he loved and he prayed for those who would trust in him. That includes us today.
There is great awe and even thanksgiving for Jesus’s ultimate sacrifice on Good Friday. This most terrible day is so difficult because it represents the sacrifice of love and what it means to “die to oneself so that others may live.” Over the past few years, I have seen Good Friday as a perfect opportunity to contact people I have broken fellowship with. Last year on Good Friday, I phoned someone who had really hurt me and in turn I considered that I had hurt them in an argument that really had not been resolved. Making that call and connecting with ‘this brother’ required sacrifice to put my life, my feelings, and ‘my need to be right’ second to the needs of the one who had caused me anger and frustration. This gesture of placing someone before myself and especially one with whom I had broken fellowship was a challenge. It required that I had to die to personal pride and release the desire to hold onto a broken relationship when what was truly needed was resolution and forgiveness.
Good Friday is a time to remember that the brokenness and woundedness of this world – what many call sin, is resolved by the power of the cross and the sacrifice that Jesus made. The Gospel of Luke reads, “It was now about the sixth hour, [3:00 p.m. on Good Friday] and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour, for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus called out with a loud voice, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.’ When he had said this, he breathed his last.” (Luke 23:44-46 NIV)
The Bible tells us that the “wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23 NIV) But the amazing and greatest news is that the blameless and sinless “lamb of God,” Jesus, died to be the complete and acceptable atonement (or covering) for our sins. The work of the cross – the sacrifice made by Jesus on the cross- gave believers eternal life. Good Friday is how we have hope for Resurrection Sunday. The Good News is that Jesus rose again on Sunday morning, and he spent 40 days giving testimony (following His resurrection) to who he was, and he bore witness that he is the Savior of the world who overcame death and the grave. He is risen, and he is now seated at the right hand of the Father, preparing a place for those who trust in him.
If we move to the celebration of the empty tomb (Resurrection Sunday) without making the journey with Christ to his death on Good Friday, then we can’t appreciate the magnitude of the price paid or the atonement that was made for us. Without the cross of Jesus, our Resurrection Sunday ‘Alleluias’ would not be possible.
Let us remember the significance of Good Friday and more fully appreciate the victory of Jesus’ over sin and death.
