Back in 2010, I wrote a piece about Good Friday. I thought about it this morning and couldn’t remember how long it had been, so I pulled it up and felt the strongest urging to repost it. So, here it is. It’s likely that many of you have never read it, so I hope that it will resonate with you on this Good Friday. It truly is a very good day…maybe the BEST day, except for Great Sunday (also known as Easter!).

I read the story of that day, 2000+ years ago, every Good Friday.

It was a day that started with betrayal, and quickly spiraled downward from there, to include an arrest by the authorities, denial by the closest of friends, a call and sentence to murder, bludgeoning, humiliation, public flogging, mocking, nails hammered into flesh and thorns worn as a crown. It was a day where the sun was hidden by a darkness like night and a Father allowed the final blow to a Son by an unprecedented separation of heart.

That day was anything but “good.” And yet, without it, where would we be?

As I was thinking about this, I remembered a friend of mine whose son broke his leg while they were on vacation. It was a pretty bad break, but the only medical facility available was very small and seemed ill-equipped. Still, they had no choice, so they had it cast and went on their way. After they got home, instead of getting some relief, their son was still in terrible pain. They got him in to their own doctor who discovered that the bone had been improperly set. He told them, frankly, that if they didn’t re-break and reset the bone, their son would very likely always walk with a limp and suffer pain with it for the rest of his life.

No parent wants to see their child suffer; but there are times, of course, when they know it’s in their child’s best interest, as the initial suffering is necessary to produce health and wholeness. The suffering is “good”, and it was certainly so with regard to my friend’s son and his future well being.

But, what if the parent had said, “Please break my leg instead. I’ll take that pain on for him if you can just heal him through it.” I know a lot of parents with sick children who would sign on for that RIGHT NOW, if it held the promise of their child’s restoration. However, they’re human and broken themselves. It’s just not possible. Broken can’t heal broken. Sin can’t stand in to cover itself.

So, on that day 2000+ years ago, One who was unbroken and without sin was sent to cover not just one sufferer, but ALL sufferers. With Him it was POSSIBLE.

That initial day of torment, and excruciating pain of body, mind and soul – lo, that day of death – was indeed a GOOD day. A GOOD day for you and me and every other broken human on the planet, as in His perfection, He took on the suffering for us so that we could be spared and healed.

Indeed, it’s Friday…and it is GOOD.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 ESV

“Yet it was our weaknesses he carried;
    it was our sorrows that weighed him down.
And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God,
    a punishment for his own sins!
But he was pierced for our rebellion,
    crushed for our sins.
He was beaten so we could be whole.
    He was whipped so we could be healed.
All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.
    We have left God’s paths to follow our own.
Yet the Lord laid on him
    the sins of us all.” Isaiah 53:4-6 NLT