I received much correspondence about my post yesterday concerning the bunny hugger crowd. One e-mail was so compelling that it completely changed my perspective of PETA; so much so in fact that I’ve decided to join that fine organization. I had no idea that PETA stood for “People eating tasty animals”, but the person who wrote me insists he heard it on The Rick and Bubba radio show out of Birmingham Alabama.
It sounds like it’s a perfect match, (possibly made in heaven) for me eh?
Today is Good Friday. Okay the first thing I want to know is why it is called “Good Friday”. This is the day that our Lord and Savior – Jesus Christ – was crucified and suffered so much for us on the cross. How can Good Friday be good when it commemorates the day on which the sins of mankind brought about the horrific death of our Savior? It seems more logical that Easter Sunday; the day Christ triumphantly arose from the grave would be called “Good Sunday” or perhaps “Glorious Sunday”.
I researched it and it seems no one really knows for sure how this day got its name. For one thing it’s uniquely an American term. The Catholic encyclopedia states, “The origin of the term Good is not clear. Some say it is from ‘God’s Friday’ (Gottes Freitag); others maintain that it is from the German Gute Freitag, and not specially English”.
If Good Friday were called good because English adopted the German phrase, then we would expect Gute Freitag to be the common German name for Good Friday, but it is not. Instead, Germans refer to Good Friday as Karfreitag—that is, Sorrowful or Suffering Friday—in German.”
Hmmm… “Gottes Freitag” phonetically sounds an awful lot like Good Friday to me…
Nah….
In the end, the historical origins of why Good Friday is called Good Friday will probably have to remain unclear, but the most logical to me is that Good Friday is good because all of that tragedy that brought about the death of Christ, (as terrible as it was), three days later led to the greatest good that could ever be, the Resurrection on Easter Sunday.
Good Friday was the day that Christ took our places on the cross. We need to somberly reflect upon that today. He suffered as no one ever suffered both in a horrendous physical manner as well as in a spiritual sense that we cannot and will not ever be fully capable of envisioning.
Jesus was holy and pure, an innocent lamb righteous and untainted and suddenly he was mysteriously transformed to become black, sickening sin; he took on every evil sin that has ever been committed since the beginning of time to include those that would be committed throughout all of time on this planet, (including yours and mine). To Jesus who was without sin and was in fact God Himself, the horror of that had to be far worse than the physical crucifixion, pain, and torture that He endured on our behalves.
In witnessing to others through the years I’ve discovered that so many people don’t think they have done that much wrong. In fact they seem to believe that a loving God would never send someone good like them to hell. The Bible states otherwise and in fact plainly states that no one is without sin and all of humanity has already been convicted and sentenced to eternal separation from God’s Holy presence – unless…
Unless, and here is the good news about this day, unless we have the blood that was shed on this special day covering our sins. Jesus took our punishment on that cross in order that we might live. We must accept His sacrifice and take up His cross.
Me, I know that I deserve to bust hell wide open. I’ve committed dark black sins to the n’th degree and would logically expect punishment of the worst kind for them. Paradoxically I’m fortunate that I lived a life of a hellion, because I fully realize the significance of what Jesus did on my behalf. He literally took my punishment that I know that I fully deserve That should have been me being scourged, beaten beyond recognition, spit upon, mocked, nailed to that cross, and jabbed with a spear until dead.
I hope that you readers who never did much wrong and tried to follow the rules will realize that, good to God and good to the human race, are 180 degrees apart and widening…We all need to accept Jesus as our Savior and put our trust in Him. For there is no other way to find God but through Him and His sacrifice.
Stop and think about it…Selah
Have a great Easter Weekend and whatever else you do, go to church this special Sunday!!!!
Romans 3:10
As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one;