What's Good about Good Friday?

A quick guide to Easter.

When I was a kid, Easter was a confusing time for me. Sure, I understood that we were celebrating Jesus’s death and resurrection. But unlike any other holiday, it felt like it occurred over multiple days and all the days had weird names.

Photo by Cdoncel on Unsplash

What’s up with Maundy Thursday, for instance? What does that mean?

What is “good” about Good Friday?

And if Jesus was supposed to be raised after three days, why did he rise on Sunday, two days after Friday?

And why was Mary Magdalene going to the tomb on Sunday morning, anyway?

We’ll ignore Palm Sunday, as that was always pretty simple. It was the day that Christ rode into Jerusalem, the week before his crucifixion, and the people waved palm branches and shouted “Hosanna!” Less than a week later, they would be shouting “Crucify him!”

Let’s take the others in order.

Maundy Thursday

What’s up with this day? What does “maundy” mean?

Maundy Thursday commemorates the Last Supper, documented in each of the books of the gospel (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John).

The word “maundy” refers to Jesus washing the feet of the disciples, documented in John 13.

13 Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to his Father. He had loved his disciples during his ministry on earth, and now he loved them to the very end. ² It was time for supper, and the devil had already prompted Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. ³ Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God. ⁴ So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, ⁵ and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he had around him.

⁶ When Jesus came to Simon Peter, Peter said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

⁷ Jesus replied, “You don’t understand now what I am doing, but someday you will.”

⁸ “No,” Peter protested, “you will never ever wash my feet!”

Jesus replied, “Unless I wash you, you won’t belong to me.”

⁹ Simon Peter exclaimed, “Then wash my hands and head as well, Lord, not just my feet!”

¹⁰ Jesus replied, “A person who has bathed all over does not need to wash, except for the feet, to be entirely clean. And you disciples are clean, but not all of you.” ¹¹ For Jesus knew who would betray him. That is what he meant when he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

¹² After washing their feet, he put on his robe again and sat down and asked, “Do you understand what I was doing? ¹³ You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and you are right, because that’s what I am. ¹⁴ And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. ¹⁵ I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you. ¹⁶ I tell you the truth, slaves are not greater than their master. Nor is the messenger more important than the one who sends the message. ¹⁷ Now that you know these things, God will bless you for doing them.

John 13:1-17 (NLT)

So, this is the day that Jesus humbled himself and performed a menial act of service for his disciples to set an example.

He then went on to have supper with them and gave us the practice of communion, documented in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Interestingly, John’s gospel doesn’t describe communion, though it does cover a lot of other teaching from the Last Supper.

Here’s Mark 14:22-25:

²² As they were eating, Jesus took some bread and blessed it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, “Take it, for this is my body.”

²³ And he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. He gave it to them, and they all drank from it. ²⁴ And he said to them, “This is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and his people. It is poured out as a sacrifice for many. ²⁵ I tell you the truth, I will not drink wine again until the day I drink it new in the Kingdom of God.”

Mark 14:22-25 (NLT)

So, if we didn’t call it Maundy Thursday, it might legitimately be called Last Supper Thursday or Communion Thursday. Those all happened at the same meal on Thursday, before Jesus’s arrest and trial.

Good Friday

So, what’s up with “Good” Friday? Why is it good?

Before we answer that, let’s go over the timeline.

Jesus celebrates Passover with the disciples on Maundy Thursday (the Last Supper), then went to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. Later that night, he’s betrayed by Judas into the hands of the Jewish religious leadership. In the early morning hours, before sunrise, he has a sham trial at which the religious leaders declare him guilty of blasphemy because he claims to be equal to God. Immediately after this trial is where Peter denies Jesus three times and then the rooster crows.

Shortly thereafter, still in the morning, Jesus is taken to Pilate and then to Herod and then back to Pilate, who finally gives in to the mob that is shouting “Crucify him!” Pilate sentences Jesus to be flogged and then crucified. (See Luke 22 and 23).

The crucifixion happens in the late morning. At noon, darkness falls over the land until three o’clock in the afternoon. At that point, the curtain in the temple is torn from top to bottom (this is hugely significant and we’ll discuss it another time) and Jesus says “Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands!” and dies.

Now, the Jewish sabbath is on Saturday (Shabbat). But the sabbath officially starts at sundown on Friday, and according to Jewish law, no work can happen after that point until sundown on Saturday. So, Jesus’s followers don’t really have enough time to properly prepare the body for burial. As a result, they don’t bother embalming the body properly. They just wrap Jesus in a burial cloth and put him in a tomb until they can come back on Sunday morning to finish the work.

The Jewish leaders know about Jesus’s claim that he would rise from the dead. They are so worried about this that they get the Romans to seal the tomb and post guards so that nobody can steal the body and falsely claim that Jesus rose from the dead.

That’s pretty much the end of things on Friday.

So, why is it called “Good Friday,” particularly when something so bad happens on that day?

Well, many of the days in Easter week are traditionally called “Holy something.” So, for instance, another name for Maundy Thursday is Holy Thursday. Similarly, an alternative name for Good Friday is Holy Friday.

The word “good” comes from the sense of being pious or holy. A good example of this is how the Holy Bible is sometimes called the “Good Book.” So, “holy” becomes “good” and “Holy Friday” becomes “Good Friday.”

Two or Three Days?

So, was it two day or three days between Jesus’s death and resurrection?

In Matthew 17, Jesus predicts his own death and says that he will be raised on the third day.

²² After they gathered again in Galilee, Jesus told them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of his enemies. ²³ He will be killed, but on the third day he will be raised from the dead.” And the disciples were filled with grief.

Matthew 17:22-23 (NLT)

Note that Jesus says “on the third day” and not “in three days” or “three days later.” That’s key.

We also need some background on how to count.

In modern times, we typically count days (and really all durations) starting on the next day. So, Saturday would be one day after Friday, and then Sunday would be two days after Friday.

But that wasn’t common in the ancient world. They tended to number days starting with the first day itself. And they had no concept of zero, so all numbering started with one.

So, in ancient thinking, Friday is the first day, Saturday is the second day, and Sunday is the third day.

When Jesus says “on the third day,” he’s referencing this style of counting.

Why is Mary at the Tomb on Sunday?

Mary Magdalene and some other women go to the tomb on Sunday morning. They are carrying the spices that they had prepared to embalm the body, since they didn’t have time to do it before sunset on Friday. They expect to get access to the body and prepare it for a proper burial, but that doesn’t happen.

Instead, they find the entrance stone rolled away and the tomb empty. Angels appear to them and proclaim that Christ is alive and has risen from the dead.

Luke 24 describes the scene:

24 But very early on Sunday morning the women went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. ² They found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. ³ So they went in, but they didn’t find the body of the Lord Jesus. ⁴ As they stood there puzzled, two men suddenly appeared to them, clothed in dazzling robes.

⁵ The women were terrified and bowed with their faces to the ground. Then the men asked, “Why are you looking among the dead for someone who is alive? ⁶ He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead! Remember what he told you back in Galilee, ⁷ that the Son of Man must be betrayed into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and that he would rise again on the third day.”

⁸ Then they remembered that he had said this. ⁹ So they rushed back from the tomb to tell his eleven disciples—and everyone else—what had happened. ¹⁰ It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and several other women who told the apostles what had happened. ¹¹ But the story sounded like nonsense to the men, so they didn’t believe it.¹² However, Peter jumped up and ran to the tomb to look. Stooping, he peered in and saw the empty linen wrappings; then he went home again, wondering what had happened.

Luke 24:1-12 (NLT)

This has to be one of the most beautiful and powerful pieces of scripture.

That, right there, folks, is what the whole Bible is about: the tomb is empty and He has risen! And because of that, we finally have a way for our sins to be forgiven and for us to live with God for eternity.

Happy Easter!

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