Today is Friday, April 06, 2007, also known as Good Friday to those of us who are Christians. For those of you who are not Christians, Good Friday is the day Christians observe because it commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus at Calvary. There are no specific rituals that are followed, except many Christians observe this day with prayer, fastings, and gospel readings that explain the events that led up to Jesus’ crucifixion. So why call it good if it is the day that Jesus was killed? There are two ways to answer this question: from a theological perspective and from a translation-cultural perspective.
From a theological perspective, one can say Good Friday is called “good” because Jesus willingly gave up his life so humanity could have a relationship with God, commonly known as vicarious atonement. Vicarious atonement means Jesus’ death satisfied the legal requirement from God. Jesus bore the penalty of sin when he died on the cross. His death was a substitution for the believers. Jesus hung in our place as He bore our sin in his body on the cross. See Mark 10:45, Romans 5:6, I Cor 8:11, 2 Cor 5:21, Galatians 1:5 and 1 Peter 2:24.
From a translation-cultural perspective, interestingly, only in the English and Dutch language is Good Friday called “good”. In German, Good Friday is called Mourning Friday. It is called Karfreitag, the kar part is no longer used but it means mourning. Mourning is exactly what the disciples did on that Friday on Calvary – they mourned the death of their leader, teacher and friend. In Israel, Good Friday is known as Big Friday. In Malta, the Czech Republic, Poland, Greece, Bulgaria and several other countries and most of the Eastern Orthodox Church the day is called Great Friday. Finally, in Latin America, Spain, Italy and Spain the day is called Holy Friday and in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland it is called Long Friday.
Wherever you find yourself on this day, I send you well wishes as we commemorate the death of Jesus and the life and relationship with God his death affords those who believe. May you know that Jesus’ death was for all, there are no qualifiers, all means all.
