Good Friday.

The first question one often asks when considering the name of the day is “why is it called ‘good’?”. (Answer: derived from “holy Friday”, c. 1290 A.D., via German “Gute Freitag“.) The question is often raised due to the traditional observation of the day with sadness, gloom, and mourning.
To many, even to some who profess faith in Jesus Christ, the true purpose of the day seems to be lost. Consider this quotation: “An incarnate God!!! An eternal, self-existent, omnipresent omniscient Author of this stupendous Universe, suffering on a Cross!!! My Soul starts with horror, at the Idea, and it has stupified the Christian World. It has been the Source of almost all of the Corruptions of Christianity.” (John Adams)

Or even megachurch leader Joel Osteen, who does not deny the importance of the cross but seeks to downplay its remembrance in favor of positive thinking: “We don’t have crosses up there. We believe in all that, but I like to take the barriers down that have kept people from coming. A lot of people who come now are people that haven’t been to church in 20 to 30 years.”

But it is not just famous people such as these. Many other professing Christians speak of Good Friday as unimportant, boring, and sad. They may even speak of it in tragic terms.
And in response I say this: If you cannot be humbly grateful that the death penalty was paid for you when you perfectly deserved to be on receiving end of the firing squad — then perhaps you would rather have had to die for your own sins? Is the cross of no value to you? Whether we want to admit it or not, sin is real, and thus, punishment is real. It will not be stayed, as that would be unjust. No one deserves to be spared, but the fact is that Jesus took the punishment for some. That’s right, the punishment was taken and the record cleared.
So if you still want to go ahead and downplay Good Friday, then make sure you do a good job of living your life beyond perfection and see where it gets you.
Or realize the true greatness of what was done on Good Friday, and realize that the punishment has been taken by a Substitute, despite the death penalty being entirely deserved, and go free in forgiveness. Humbly realize your best goodness still wouldn’t be enough to have the death sentence cancelled, and rely fully on the One who took it for you. . .
. . . And be reminded of Good Friday every day of the year.