The day was preceded by sellout and betrayal by one of his disciples. Another close friend denied even knowing him. All other followers simply abandoned him after his rivals orchestrated a sham trial and condemned him to death. Shouts of "crucify" flooded the air and mob rule seemed to win the day.
How could this be a day good for anything?
Just days before, Jesus Christ rode into Jerusalem on a donkey and the masses laid down palms in the road as they lined the streets and cheered him on. They were expecting a powerful king to deliver them from oppressive Roman rule. What they got was far beyond the teachings of the contemporary religious leaders who were looking for one to restore Israel to its former glory.
The ancient Israelites failed to realize that even their former glory was no utopia. The prophets centuries before pointed to the kind of deliverer they needed and what it would take for that deliverer to free them from the great enemies of sin and death. It would take more than a righteous man to deliver them; It required the sacrifice of God himself. Scandalous.
Good Friday involved suffering, sacrifice, and Jesus' substitutionary atonement for the sins of mankind. Yet, death did not have the final word that day. The idea of sacrifice is foreign to our modern ears, especially sacrifice for those we don't even know. Neither do our modern minds have a category for substitutionary atonement. After all, we're told that we're all basically good.
Yet our conscience convicts us when we do wrong. Our frailty, sadness, pain and brokenness all around tell us that something has gone wrong in this world. What are we to do?
Let the story of Good Friday sink in.
Courage overcame fear, conviction overcame faithlessness and sacrifice won over self-preservation. God himself became man, not to coerce people into obedience, but instead He came to invite people into relationship with Him by the sacrifice he made.
The greatest act of love swallowed up the greatest act of evil in order to reconcile sinners to a holy God. And the great specter of death that hung over mankind like a terrible nightmare lost its power with the mighty blow that Jesus Christ struck. Out of the ashes of mankind's treachery came a resurrection three days later and with it a turning point in the history of the world. This is the good news of Good Friday.
