It only makes sense if P.T. Bradley so beautifully wrote about Maundy Thursday, I should share my thoughts on Good Friday.

I have a few thoughts, and one starts right from my birth. I was born on Good Friday, with tornado warnings no less. This is one of those facts I throw out when people want to know something that most wouldn’t know.

As a child, I didn’t understand Good Friday. I didn’t understand a lot about Christ’s crucifixion, but I knew He was nailed to the cross. What’s so good about that? That question followed me for years.

Fast forward and I was a fairly new believer in Christ, married, and a mom. Passion of the Christ was THE movie everyone talked about. There were so many warnings about the violence that I was scared to watch. I did watch once, and it was brutal. It wasn’t a movie you’d binge over and over. The sacrifice Jesus made was clearly on screen for all to see and hopefully believe.

A few years after that, we moved to Ohio with our family that now included our daughter. We found a church home that is not only still the same, but it is our church family. We’ve been through a lot together. One of those things was an annual performance of The Passion Play. It looked like a professional show right down to the Last Supper scene, built to replicate the famous painting as the actors held still to capture the moment.

The tradition went on long enough for my husband to play John the Baptist, ensemble soloist, and ensemble director. My son was a young boy servant when he first started, and ended up as a disciple. Our daughter was a background actor with a dream to be one of the dancers. That came true.

One year my elderly aunt attended and chose an aisle seat. The play is called The Passion Play for a reason. It was as realistic as you could get. Jesus carried the cross, and it was an agonizing journey. Several times the actor would stop, drop the cross, and it would be right near people watching the play. My aunt was right where Jesus stopped, and the drop of the cross echoed through our section. She jumped.

The lashings appeared real, and the Roman guard would stop half way through them to break the fourth wall and share facts with the audience about the brutality. It’s easy to gloss over what Jesus endured. Before He was nailed to the cross He was beaten. Spat on. Mocked. The lashes were intended to bring Him as close to death as possible. The whip was embedded with shards of bone and lead.

When the play resumed, two thieves, real actors, hung on crosses. The hammer sounds for Jesus were real. The actor playing Jesus screamed with each blow. When the cross was erected with Jesus on it, you could hear crying, every performance.

In actual crucifixions the soldiers would often break legs to speed up the death. Not in Christ’s case. He had exposed bone from whippings and beatings, and extra pain and torture from His crown of thorns. He hung for hours.

The play of course ends with the Biblical re-telling of His resurrection, ascenion, and promise of return. When the lights came on my aunt looked at me and announced she didn’t really care for it. It was too intense.

That response takes me back to my childhood question, what’s so good about Good Friday? Passion Play lets you know if you have any religious background it’s known the play will be about the last week, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. Of course it’s intense. Jesus lived without sin, literally perfect, on Earth and had every reason to reject what happened.

It was His Father’s love for us that brought Jesus to Golgatha.

It’s the empty tomb three days later that proved He was no ordiary man. He was Savior. Messiah. God with Us.

He took that love and sacrifice and made a way to heaven, to eternal life with Him. There is no other way but accepting that Jesus is all those things, did all those things, and we are sinners who have no hope without Him.

There it is. The Good. Was that day good for Jesus? You know the answer.

It was good for us. For you, me, and everyone we love—and those we do not.

His passion IS intense. He went to the Cross to make a way, a way we should have faced, not Him. But He did.

I don’t know about you, but being thankful seems so lame. Spending every day as long as I breathe being grateful will never cover what He’s done.

But my passion is to help advance God’s Kingdom.

Is it yours?

Have you ever considered what Jesus has done for you? Are you ready to acknowledge Him and enter into a relationship where He is part of your every day?

If so, repeat this prayer or something similar:

Jesus, thank You for everything You have done. I believe You came to Earth and lived in perfection. You were crucified without cause, and took the punishment, my punishment, to make a way for my eternity to be spent with You. You never sinned, but I have. Forgive me for my sins. (Feel free to name them). I want to spend the rest of my days on earth living for You. You are my Savior and rescuer, and You deserve all the honor, praise and glory. Amen and Amen.