Thank you to the hundreds and hundreds of people who came out to our Good Friday concerts tonight. God was truly glorified. I was asked by several on the way home if I could share my homily from this evening. Hope this blesses you:
There is nothing visibly good about Good Friday. Friday is betrayal. Friday is injustice. Friday is a rushed trial in the dark and a crowd shouting for blood. Friday is nails through hands that healed the sick… Feet that carried good news… A back that bore the weight of the world’s sin. Friday is where everything looks like it’s falling apart. And if we’re honest, that’s not hard for us to understand right now. Because we live in a world that still feels like that Friday sometimes. Wars rage. Families fracture. Anxiety rises. Truth feels negotiable. People feel lost, angry, divided, tired. It still feels like darkness is winning. So why do we dare call this day “good”? Because what looked like defeat was ACTUALLY the greatest victory in history.
On Friday, Jesus Christ did not lose, He laid down His life. On Friday, sin was not ignored, it was fully paid for. On this day, evil was not unleashed, it was exposed, absorbed, and defeated at the cross. Isaiah says, “It pleased the Lord to crush Him…” Why? Because through that crushing… God was crushing our sin. That’s why it’s good. Not because it was easy, but because it was necessary. Not because it felt victorious, but because it secured victory.
And here’s where this matters for us tonight: If you rush past Friday to get to Sunday… you will never understand how deep your need is. We love resurrection. We love hope. We love empty tombs. You don’t get Sunday… without Friday. Just like you don’t get life without death. You don’t get forgiveness without a cross. And if we skip the cross, we reduce Christianity to inspiration instead of salvation.
I’ve seen something that I can’t shake. A few years ago, I stood in Golgotha, the place many believe was the hill of the skull, where Jesus was crucified. It’s a limestone ridge, and if you look closely, you can still make out what looks like a skull in the rock. But what struck me wasn’t just the hill. It was what was in front of it. There was a massive public transportation sign: buses moving, people rushing, schedules, noise, distraction. And that sign was positioned in such a way that it covered the face of the skull. Covered it.
As if the modern world had just built over it. Moved on from it. Hidden it behind movement, noise, and urgency. And I remember standing there thinking. That’s not just Jerusalem, that’s us. We have not removed the cross, we’ve just obstructed our view of it.
We’ve covered it with busyness. With headlines. With politics. With entertainment. With endless distraction. We don’t like to think about sad things or deal with things we need to deal with because of the way it makes us feel. But regardless of how we feel.
The cross is still there. The sacrifice still stands. The work of Christ is still finished. We’ve just learned how to live like it’s hidden behind something more “urgent.”
Good Friday calls us to move the sign. To stop. To look again. To see what we’ve covered over. Because behind all the noise… behind all the movement, behind everything competing for your attention. There is a hill. There is a cross. There is a Savior. And He is not asking you to admire Him in passing. He is calling you to behold Him, and believe. So tonight, we don’t rush. We sit in Friday. We feel the weight of it. We acknowledge the cost.
We remember that our sin is not small, it required the Son of God to die. "For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." - Romans 3:23. But remember why the Gospel of Jesus Christ is called the good news: because Friday is not the end of the story.
Because the same Jesus who cried, “It is finished”… was not declaring defeat; He was declaring that everything necessary for your salvation is complete.
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast". Ephesians 2:8-9
So why is it called Good Friday? Because on the darkest day in history… God was doing His brightest work. Because when the world gave its worst, God gave His Son. Because through death… He brought life. And because for every person who trusts in Christ, Friday means this: Your sin is paid for. Your guilt is removed. Your eternity is secured.
"Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” Romans 10:9-11.
Tonight we honor Friday. Because without Friday, there is no forgiveness. And because of Friday… Sunday is coming.
#GoodFriday #ResurrectionSunday