Good Friday: Elation, Not Melancholy

For too long Protestants have mired themselves in the sacred heart of Jesus paradigm, rather than the Victorious Cross.

This Friday churches will hold Good Friday services in which the mood will be intentionally somber, solemn, and even sad. At a Good Friday service in which I once participated, the host pastor let everyone know unequivocally that this was about the “bitter herb” of Christ, and there was to be no expression of joy at all. I thought this was very strange then, and I think it is strange now.

There’s no hint, of course, that Jesus’ death was not agonizing, in fact, the most agonizing death in all human history. It was not merely the physical death but the inexpressible agony of carrying the sins of the world that is impossible to comprehend. But our empathy over his agonizing pain (what empathy is possible to us in our finite, fallen condition) is not the only appropriate emotion on Good Friday.

The Bible makes clear Christ’s atoning death was a victory over Satan his hosts, a victory at which the saints should rejoice. The apostle Paul writes in Colossians 2:13-15 —

And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He [the Father] has made alive together with Him [Jesus Christ], having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed [Satanic] principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.

In Christ’s death (and not only his resurrection, which is rightly, and ordinarily, considered a victory), Christ vanquished Satan and all of his hosts. How? Paul implies that His death paid the penalty for man’s sin (that is, our lawbreaking, “the handwriting of requirements”), releasing Satan’s stranglehold on all those who had sold themselves into bondage to him by their sin — and that includes everybody in the human race, except our Lord himself.

It has sometimes been held historically that Christ’s death was a victory clothed in defeat. It would be more correct to say that it was a victory interpreted as defeat to eyes blinded by sin. This is precisely why the risen Lord on that first Easter Sunday could reprimand the two morose disciples walking on the road to Emmaus:

Then He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.” (Luke 24:25-27)

Our Lord is asserting that to those saints who had read and understood the Old Testament there was nothing surprising about Christ’s death, and no reason to be saddened by it, because it was the prelude to his great glorification. Indeed, the crucifixion, linked to the resurrection, is itself the glorification. Jesus is implicitly telling these disciples that there is no reason they should be morose; this was all part of the Father’s great Victory Plan.

Since this is the case, morose, sad, grief-grounded Good Friday services are simply not reflecting the full biblical picture. It is, after all, Good Friday and not Bad Friday or even Sad Friday. For too long Protestants have mired themselves in the sacred heart of Jesus paradigm, rather than the Victorious Cross that definitively vanquished the devil and his minions. To celebrate Good Friday is to celebrate victory.

The Good Friday service (if there is one) should reflect this victorious tone. “Victory in Jesus” is more appropriate than “O Sacred Head Now Wounded.” If communion is observed, it should be a time of great victory and celebration (as, by the way, communion should always be whenever it is observed). Perhaps the congregation should be given an opportunity to express personal testimonies of how the Cross has led to victory over sin in their own life. Remember, Christ died not only to pay for the penalty for our sin, but also to eliminate the present power and pleasure and one day in eternity, the very presence of sin (read Romans 6).

The cross is all about victory in human history, and Good Friday services should express elation, not melancholy.