Today is Good Friday. It is on this day my Lord was crucified. According to Wikipedia the day the Lord was hung on the cross happened on April 3, AD33:
"Based on the details of the canonical gospels, the Crucifixion of Jesus was most likely to have been on a Friday (the day before the Jewish Sabbath) (John 19:42). The estimated year of the Crucifixion is AD 33, by two different groups, and originally as AD 34 by Isaac Newton via the differences between the Biblical and Julian calendars and the crescent of the moon. A third method, using a completely different astronomical approach based on a lunar Crucifixion darkness and eclipse model (consistent with Apostle Peter's reference to a "moon of blood" in Acts 2:20), points to Friday, 3 April AD 33. (Colin Humphreys)"
Good Friday is also known as Easter Friday, God's Friday, or Great Friday (Eastern Orthodox) etc. But the majority of Christians I know still call it Good Friday. The Oxford English Dictionary gives the meaning of the word "good" as "of a day or season observed as holy by the church", i.e. an archaic sense of good, like "good" tide meaning "Christmas" or Good Wednesday meaning the Wednesday in Holy Week. Of interest, in German-speaking countries the Good Friday is generally referred as Karfreitag (Kar from Old High German kara = to grief or to mourn; Freitag = Friday).
According to the Baltimore Catechism Good Friday is called good because Christ, by His Death, "showed His great love for man, and purchased for him every blessing." From the Huffington Post, William Bradshaw blogged “That terrible Friday has been called Good Friday because it led to the Resurrection of Jesus and his victory over death and sin and the celebration of Easter, the very pinnacle of Christian celebrations. Although Christians, from the very fundamental to the very liberal, vary in their interpretations of exactly how the death of Jesus on the cross frees man from his sins and gives him everlasting life, and exactly what everlasting life means, they all agree that it took the death and burial of Jesus on that Friday to make the victory of the Resurrection possible. John simply says: "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 RSV)"
On Good Friday I typically wake up with mixed emotions. I totally understand and accept it in my heart that what Jesus did on this Friday and His subsequent resurrection on Sunday almost 2000 years ago meant that I can have all my sins (past, present and future) forgiven and can claim victory over spiritual death (separation from God) and look forward to an amazing future which begins now on earth. Yet I am supposed to feel His pain and suffering. I had watched numerous Easter plays and cantatas where the vivid picture of Jesus being nailed to the cross was replayed. Sometimes I was moved to tears but other times I found myself emotionless, numbed. Oh may I not forget. May my life show the gratitude and power because what happened on Good Friday.
“He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” (1 Peter 2:24)
We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. (2 Corinthians 4:10)
But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:57)
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