What makes Good Friday good? To those unfamiliar with today, they see a man who was earlier proclaimed as King being mocked & humiliated, tortured & killed. Yet on this day, as believers, we gather to pray, to worship, and continue to prepare for the third day…

…because the story doesn’t end here.

All good stories have a good ending. And though Good Friday may seem unusual to any who don’t know, we know that we can find hope in the cross… the cross that was meant to kill, yet is now a symbol of life for us.

It is said in Isaiah 53:3-5, “He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.”

Jesus took our sin, our guilt, our shame… all of it to the cross on our behalf. What a burden we no longer have to bear. And that’s a feeling that ought to make us feel good.

Praise God for that cross today.

Reflection Song: Nothing But The Blood