Good Friday Isn’t Really That Good
There are lots of good, helpful things out there in the world today, but those things aren’t really super exciting or useful unless you have a need for them.
A flashlight is a good thing, but it’s not all that important unless you’re stuck in the dark. A microwave is a helpful invention, but I bet you don’t spend much time contemplating its existence until you’re hungry. An airplane seat cushions that double as a flotation device is good to have, but you pretty much ignore it unless your plane is going down.
In the same way, Good Friday isn’t really that good if you don’t need what was offered on that Jerusalem cross two thousand years ago.
In other words, the degree to which you celebrate Good Friday is directly proportional to the degree to which you need forgiveness. And your excitement and anticipation for Easter Sunday morning is directly linked to how much you need victory. Our needs drastically influence how we see and value things.
If you do no wrong and commit no sin, you need no forgiveness. If you achieve, accomplish and win all on your own, you need no one else to earn victory in your stead.
On the other hand, if you’ve screwed up, you need forgiveness. If you’ve damaged a relationship, you need reconciliation. If you’re weak and overwhelmed, you need restoration. If your best efforts fall short and your 100% is not enough, you need victory.
Jesus put it this way: “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:31-32).
I don’t know about you, but I try really hard to be self-sufficient and independent. I don’t like being wrong or weak or insufficient. But even on our best days, we fall devastatingly short of God’s perfection. Even at our strongest, we’re crippled and withered compared to God’s matchless strength. Even in our wisest moments, our plans can flounder and fail. We may like to think of ourselves as “healthy” and “righteous,” but in reality, each of us is a sick sinner in need of repentance. Timothy Keller wrote, “God’s grace does not come to people who morally outperform others, but to those who admit their failure to perform and who acknowledge their need for a Savior” (in his book The Reason for God).
You desperately need a Savior. I do, too. We can’t appreciate the significance of Jesus’s sacrifice until we grasp just how much we don’t deserve it. We won’t recognize the gravity of Jesus’ death until we realize it should have been our own. And we can’t celebrate the victory of the resurrection until we admit how powerless we are.
So if you’re wanting to feel something this Easter, to really connect with the crucifixion and resurrection, to see this old story in a new way, start with your need for a Savior. Otherwise, Good Friday isn’t really that good, and Easter is just a day for bunnies and candy-filled eggs.
