04/03/2026
I always wondered when I was little why it was called “Good Friday” when there was nothing good about it. Nothing good about the betrayal, the flesh giving up. The mocking and beating. The weight of the thorns. The nails on the cross. The cries of Mary as she watches such pain. It was heartbreak in its rawest form.
Good Friday is the reminder that Jesus did not just talk about love. He proved it, infinitely. He carried the cross for us,
He took the shame and suffered, and gave his life for us. For sinners, for the misunderstood, the hurt and broken.
For me, and for you.
There are not many words for this day of heaviness of hurt, pain and sorrow. For guilt of following the crowd. For condemning and hurting someone who just loved us. It truly feels sad, heavy, and empty. We know that He was not held there by nails alone. He was held there by love for us. That is mercy, that is true love. He knew the outcome was bigger than the pain. What looked like defeat and like darkness conquered, that is when heaven was doing its deepest work. Sometimes what looks like the end is the beginning of redemption. We are all human and make mistakes and follow the crowd blindly, but knowing how loved you are when you did nothing to deserve it, there’s nothing like it. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16
So now that I’m older, no there was nothing good about the hurt and pain we caused but there is hope and love and so much light after and to know all of that was for us is more than good. For us to know how loved we are because that is the only way our flesh can even come close to comprehend such love. When something “good” happens to you whether it’s observing nature and all its wonder and beauty, that’s God. Whether it’s hearing your baby laugh for the first time, that’s God. Whether it’s sitting at the bedside of a loved one knowing your flesh will never see them again and it hurts like hell but there’s some type of hope knowing that you are not alone through the pain and that this truly isn’t the end spiritually, that’s God.
So yes, Good Friday is painful. But it is also holy. Because on that cross, Jesus showed so much more than love. There’s nothing else that compares to God’s love and today is a reminder of how loved you are and how deserving you are. How great is our God.