Good Friday!
How Can We Call It "Good" Friday?
“Good Friday”
How Can We Call It “Good” Friday?
I am not sure that Jesus, after all He experienced on what we historically call “Good Friday,” would have called it “good”.
On Thursday evening, Jesus celebrated Passover with His disciples. It was during this celebration that He changed the liturgy and symbolism of the Jewish Passover into the liturgy of Christian Holy Communion. Instead of pointing to the day of Passover celebrating the deliverance of the Jewish nation from Egypt, Jesus used the bread and wine of the Passover meal to symbolize His broken body and His shed blood—symbolism which would have been beyond the disciples’ comprehension in that moment, but which stands as such a powerful reminder of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus across the centuries.
After the Passover celebration with His disciples, Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. He agonized over the torture which was ahead of Him. He sweat drops of blood as He prayed, asking His Heavenly Father if there was any other way to accomplish the salvation of the world besides His atoning death by crucifixion.
Jesus was betrayed by Judas in the Garden and led before Annas, and then to Caiaphas the High Priest, and questioned before the Sanhedrin. At daybreak, the council formally condemns Jesus for blasphemy.
Shortly after the formal charge, Jesus is taken before the Roman governor of the region, Pontius Pilate. When Pilate learns that Jesus is from Galilee, he sends Him to Herod Antipas, who happens to be in Jerusalem. Herod mocks Jesus and sends Him back to Pontius Pilate.
Pontius Pilate tries to release Jesus from the political trap the Sadducees and Pharisees have concocted by offering to release Jesus, but to Pontius Pilate’s surprise and dismay, the crowds choose Barabbas.
Pilate then orders for Jesus to be flogged and crucified.
I know that for a long period of time, I was guilty of overlooking the “flogged” component of this timetable, until one day as I was reading through the Scripture describing these events, I quickly read past, “But he had Jesus flogged and handed Him over to be crucified.” The Holy Spirit prompted me to go back and reflect on this. I took the time to look up what it meant to be flogged. I had to go to some Bible commentaries. Today, I can just put it into ChatGPT and see what it has to say. Here is what ChatGPT says about “flogging” in Jesus’ day.
“In the time of Jesus, flogging (also called scourging) was a brutal form of punishment used by the Romans. It was often carried out before a crucifixion to weaken the condemned person and intensify the suffering.
1. The Instrument Used
The Romans commonly used a whip called a flagrum (sometimes called a scourge).
It had several leather thongs attached to a handle.
At the ends of the thongs were small pieces of metal, bone, or sharp hooks.
These were designed to cut into the skin and tear flesh with each strike.
2. How the Punishment Was Carried Out
The victim was typically:
Stripped of clothing
Tied to a post or pillar
Whipped repeatedly by one or two Roman soldiers.
Each blow would:
Lacerate the skin
Often expose muscle tissue
Sometimes even reveal bones or internal organs after repeated strikes.
Unlike Jewish law, which limited lashes to forty (see **Book of Deuteronomy 25:3), Roman flogging had no fixed limit. The soldiers could continue until they were satisfied—or until the victim collapsed.
3. Physical Effects
Ancient sources describe the results as horrific:
Severe blood loss
Shock
Deep wounds across the back, sides, and sometimes chest
In some cases, victims died from the flogging alone.
This helps explain why victims of crucifixion were often extremely weak before they were even placed on the cross.
4. Jesus’ Flogging
The Gospels record that Jesus was scourged under the authority of Pontius Pilate before the crucifixion (see **Gospel of John 19:1). The soldiers also mocked Him, placing a crown of thorns on His head and a robe on His shoulders.
5. Why the Romans Did This
Flogging served several purposes:
Punishment for the condemned person
Intimidation to discourage rebellion
Weakening the victim so crucifixion would lead to death more quickly
Roman historian Josephus and others describe scourging as one of the most savage punishments used in the Roman world.”
So, prior to being led to His crucifixion, Jesus was flogged. In Mel Gibson’s movie, “The Passion,” we get a very intense and shocking visual depiction of this!
Then Jesus is led off to His crucifixion. More often, we have heard accounts of the brutality of the crucifixion and the incredible torture of death by crucifixion. Jesus’ crucifixion probably began sometime around 9:00 a.m., and He uttered those infamous words, “It is finished,” around 3:00 p.m. I don’t think that we can even begin to imagine the terrible agony of the Passion of Jesus!
Yet, we call this day “Good Friday!”
We can call this “Good Friday” because of the LOVE which is exemplified by the events of that “Good Friday” so many years ago. Jesus showed us His love for His Heavenly Father through His obedience, and Jesus showed us His love for each one of us by being willing to be flogged and then crucified so that He could be the atoning sacrifice for our sins and for the sins of the entire world. “For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son…” All of this tragic, glorious story is a story of LOVE!
We can call this “Good Friday” because we see how God can redeem anything and everything. God can make all things work together for good, even the death of His Son on the Cross of Calvary. Through this atoning death, God can redeem each one of us and any sin which we have done or experienced! This is God’s AMAZING GRACE!!!
I love how Hebrews 12:2 says that we are to look to Jesus, to fix our eyes on Jesus, “the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
“Who for the joy that was set before Him?”
You and I and our salvation are the joy that was set before Jesus! Our sin made His suffering and death necessary.
Isaiah 53:5–6
But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
It was indeed for our good that Jesus suffered and died. We call it Good Friday, but the reminder of his agony will remain each time we partake of the bread and wine symbolizing his body and blood.