April 3, 2026
It happens all the time, every year, that my confirmation students will ask this: “Why is it called good if on this day Jesus died. Why is it called Good Friday?” It is a fair question because it takes literally a leap of faith to see this as a good day. The Theology of the Cross says that God was closest to us and was most active for us at this moment of death on the cross. It is at this moment that Jesus is high priest and sacrifice and king and he is proclaiming completion, victory. Death is our ultimate fear, it enrages us, the specter of death turns us inward and can make us very greedy and needy. We never trusted God because of death. But now God experiences death and takes our biggest problem and shows that it will not prevail. That is why this day is good.
Let Us Pray: Father in Heaven we give You thanks that You did not hide in heaven from our biggest problem but You came down here and experienced our biggest problem. We give You thanks that You absorbed in the cross the whole history of human agony and suffering. And that You are not unaware of what it is like to be us. By defeating the power of death You free us to love and care and find beauty. In Jesus’s Precious Name, Amen.