Good(?) Friday

Why is it called “Good Friday”

My daughter keeps asking this question. She knows what happens. She is now old enough to understand that dead is dead and that killing somebody is wrong. So she keeps asking “why is it called Good?”
Now she knows the Sunday school answers: “Christ died on the cross for our sins.” She knows to say that during the Children’s Sermon, or whenever asked, but she is also smart enough to know that answer is a bit too pat. Why “Good?” cross with shadow

As a pastor, I read the Good Friday scriptures every year. And honestly, every year I choke back my own emotions as I read “Jesus called out with a loud voice, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.’ When he had said this, he breathed his last (Luke 23:46).” Every time I reflect on this, I feel the anguish and torment of my own soul, for I am a sinner. And then something else happens. While I cannot explain it, while I cannot even fully comprehend it, I know. Deep in my soul I know. Jesus died for my sins. And that, my friends, is good.

Where the whole realm of nature mine
that were a present far too small
love so amazing, so divine
demands my soul, my life, my all

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