Somebody posted a Peanuts cartoon on Facebook the other day that has continued to resonate in my mind. It was Charlie Brown and Linus, the resident theologian for the Peanuts gang, talking. Charlie asks, “Linus, I don’t get it. Why do they call it GOOD Friday? How can it be good if that’s the day that Jesus died??!!” Linus’ reply is classic! He says, “Charlie Brown, when someone is willing to die in your place… THAT’S a good day!”
I remember asking a man at church one Easter when I had just started “walking with the Lord” about this same thing. The question I posed to him was similar to Charlie Brown’s. I asked him, “Phil, why did Jesus have to DIE? That seems awfully extreme.” His reply still impacts my life 33 years later. He said, “Lew… without the shedding of blood, God does not forgive sins. In the Old Testament days, it was the blood of a lamb which TEMPORARILY took away a person’s sins. Jesus, who is the perfect spotless Lamb of God, had to shed his blood to permanently take away our sins. So He died on that cross so that we might live… forgiven.”
By putting our faith and trust in the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ— God’s Son— and believing that he died for OUR sins on that bloody cross… our sins are forgiven by God and we can have confidence that when our body dies, our soul will live forever in the presence of the One who loved us so much that He was willing to die a horrible death. Because we are sinners, WE are the one who deserve to die! But God said/says: “I love YOU so much that I gave my Son to die in your place… that if you will believe in Jesus, you will never die. In fact, you will live forever in heaven with us.” (My paraphrase of that famous verse that you see at all the sporting events: John 3:16.)
Now, THAT’S GOOD news and that’s what makes this day GOOD Friday!!!
