Should We Celebrate Good Friday?

First, I want to say that I appreciate our history of Good Friday services at the Vineyard Church of Houston and that our Good Friday service gives us room to focus on the death of Christ without having to act like he wasn't raised from the dead. The video, "It's Friday but Sunday is Coming" was a fitting conclusion to our worship.

It is also true that Good Friday always creates a tension for me. I appreciate, no I am extremely grateful, that Jesus died for me and you. This is something worth reflecting on as it increases my gratitude to God, reminds me that I am forgiven, and that I am now free to live a life that is not ruled by sin and death.

My problem with Good Friday is that there always seems to be this pressure to isolate Jesus' death from his resurrection. It seems like in an effort to do justice to his death, we try to feel as badly as possible about the fact that our sin necessitated Jesus' suffering. I can appreciate that and am capable of feeling as bad as the next person.

However, it was brought to my attention many years ago, that outside the Gospels' description of the event, the New Testament simply does not focus on the pain and agony of Jesus suffering and death. This is not a point of reflection. The focus is on what was accomplished by his death and in that light is hard to separate from the resurrection. We understand that if Jesus was not raised from the dead, his death would have been meaningless in terms of our salvation. We also understand that in our union with Christ we died to sin and are made alive to God. And that again brings us to this cross/resurrection combination. We just can't get away from it.

I am not saying that we should not gather to worship and pray and share communion on Good Friday. I am saying that we don't need to try to make ourselves feel bad about Jesus death - the Scripture does not attempt to do that, and that we don't need to worship or pray in a manner that tries to conceal the fact that Jesus has been raised from the dead.

We can use the word celebrate in relation to Good Friday because it is a celebration of God's love and his victory over sin and evil. This has resulted in our rescue and freedom. As we celebrate Good Friday we will find joy seeping into our worship and that is really okay.

Good Friday allows us to focus on the love of God and the power of the cross for salvation - something we should do. But we observe Good Friday in the light of the resurrection and that brings a smile to our face and that too is okay.

Happy Good Friday!