Bob Keel Platte Valley Ward Bishop of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
The phrase Good Friday has always stood out to me.
Is it really good? It signifies the day that our Savior Jesus Christ was brutally crucified and ultimately left our world of flesh and blood. Perhaps dark Friday would be more appropriate? Some speculate the word “Good” in Good Friday was once God Friday. Others think it refers not to how Jesus was brutally treated but in what Jesus did for us on the cross.
It is my testimony that Jesus’s life is central to all human history, neither began in Bethlehem nor concluded on “Good Friday” on the cross at Calvary. Jesus is a God and did Godly things while on earth. Of those things perhaps the most important things happened around Good Friday. First of all he suffered for the sins of all mankind. “He gave his life to atone for the sins of all mankind. His was a great vicarious gift in behalf of all who would ever live on the earth.”1 The Atonement of Jesus Christ saves us from sin and therefore from the effects of sin which are a spiritual death. Spiritual death is a separation from God that happens of a consequence of sin.
This I believe is the reason of Good in Good Friday. For me, I might call it Wonderful Friday, Amazing Friday, Loving Friday, or any list of other adjectives that still fall short of the majesty of Jesus Christ.
Good Friday and Easter are linked in a way that only a God can do. Easter is the celebration of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. “Because of the Atonement and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, physical death is only temporary: ‘as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.’2 Everyone will be resurrected, meaning that every person’s spirit will be reunited with his or her body—‘restored to their proper frame’ and no longer subject to death.”3
It is my invitation to all that we find a way to thank our God for the gift that has no compliment great enough to describe it, Our Savior Jesus Christ and his example to follow, his Atoning Sacrifice, and Resurrection. May we live our lives in a way that accepts our Savior and his sacrifice so that we can live with him again.
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