Good Friday: When Jesus Died for the Sins of the World

Ken Kalis
Apr 16
5 min read

I think Good Friday is the holiest day of the year. Why?

The Son of God died for me when He didn't have to. Why?
He loved me and wanted me to live with Him forever. But why did He die?
To wash away my sins that separated me from Him.

He died for you, too, if you only believe!

Good Friday was a big deal when I grew up in New Jersey in the 1950s and 1960s. It was a national holiday, schools were closed, and most people got off work. We were glad to be out of school and played baseball all day, except from noon to 3 pm, when the priest from Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church chased us off their lot, and we had to find another place to play.

When I came to Florida in 1996, it was different. It was just another day of the week, and most people did not know or care that it was Good Friday, mainly because there were so few Catholics here.

I remember driving home and hearing a preacher tell the world it was not true that Jesus*(4BC-30 AD) died on a Friday. The radio guy made a case for it being on a Wednesday, which I found weird and rather uncivil to preach that sermon on the day in question!

An asterisk* after a name means the person is in SP IRITUAL LIVES.

As I researched the question, I found that no one really knows when Good Friday was given its name, and it certainly was not celebrated in the Bible. The date of the crucifixion has been identified as April 3, 33 A.D., and the Resurrection as April 5, 33 A.D.

Britannica tells us :

Good Friday is the Friday before Easter, the day on which Christians annually commemorate the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ. From the early days of Christianity, Good Friday was observed as a day of sorrow, penance, and fasting.

The celebration of Good Friday dates back to the 4th century in Egeria. The nomenclature of "Good Friday" is derived from "God's Friday," although the correct reason for this name is still unknown.

Egeria, Etheria, or Aetheria, was a Hispano-Roman Christian woman, widely regarded to be the author of a detailed account of a pilgrimage to the Holy Land about 381/2–384. The long letter, dubbed Peregrinatio or Itinerarium Egeriae, is addressed to a circle of women at home. The historical details it contains set the journey in the early 380s, making it the earliest of its kind. It survives in fragmentary form in a later copy—lacking a title, date and attribution.

The second portion of the text is a detailed account of the liturgical services and observances of the church calendar in Jerusalem. The liturgical year was incipient at the time of her visit. This is invaluable because the development of liturgical worship (e. g. Lent, Palm or Passion Sunday) reached universal practice in the 4th century. Egeria provides a first-hand account of practices and implementation of liturgical seasons as they existed during her visit. This snapshot is before universal acceptance of a December 25 celebration of the nativity of Jesus; this is very early and very helpful in cataloguing the development of annual liturgical worship

In Bible days, Believers celebrated the Resurrection on the Passover, simply moving the celebration from the Jewish Sabbath to Sunday, the first day of the week, when Jesus arose. Good Friday was not recognized as “Good” nor even as “Friday” before the

The English language began in the 8th century; as Irenaeus and Tertullian testify, it was simply a part of the “Pasch.”

We cannot say exactly when Christians started observing Good Friday, but we can say that it was observed very early in the Church's history, as early as the second century. Virtually every Church Father agrees with the traditional dating of a Thursday Last Supper, Friday Crucifixion, and Sunday resurrection. This includes Ignatius (105 AD), Barnabas (120 AD), Clement of Alexandria (195 AD), and many others. This chronology is firmly based on Scripture and universally verified by Tradition.

The Good Friday date is one of the oldest Christian holidays, with some sources saying that it has been observed since 100 CE. It was associated with fasting during the early years of its observance and was associated with the crucifixion around the fourth century CE. The Easter date depends on the ecclesiastical approximation of the March equinox.

Today, Good Friday is recognized by all Christians. In many Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican, and Methodist churches, the Service of the Great Three Hours' Agony is held from noon until 3 p.m.—the hours the Bible records darkness covering the land until Jesus' death on the cross. Good Friday is a widely instituted legal holiday around the world.[8] Some predominantly Christian countries, such as Germany, have laws prohibiting certain acts—public dancing, horse racing—in remembrance of the somber nature of Good Friday

I first knew Good Friday as the day Jesus died, and we had a solemn communion service that evening in our Pentecostal Church. Later in life, I discovered this was the only day Roman Catholics did NOT receive communion, but I chalked that up as a Protestant desire to be distinct from Rome.

There is truth in this, as Lutherans saw Good Friday as the most important religious holiday, and abstention from all worldly works was expected. They had no restrictions on the celebration of the Eucharist on Good Friday; they even saw it as a prime day on which to receive the Eucharist, and services were often accentuated by special music such as Johann Sebastian Bach's St Matthew Passion.

When I was received into the Protestant Episcopal Church in 1977, I participated in their observation of the three hours of silence when Jesus hung on the cross. Later, when the Episcopal Church was moving more to Catholic practices, I observed the 14 Stations of the Cross as long as there were personal testimonies accompanying them.

When a large wooden cross was brought in, people started hammering nails in it, at which I bridled. When some lay prone on the cross, my Protestant instincts rebelled at this superstition, and I left. Back to Evangelical Christianity for me.

One Catholic element I did find powerful and congruent with the spirit of the day was the Good Friday prayer for the Jews. This has been a part of the liturgy since 500 AD. Here is the text in the 2019 ACNA Book of Common Prayer: Let us pray for the Jewish people: that the Lord our God may look graciously upon them, and that they may come to know Jesus as the Messiah and as the Lord of all.

Here is a Good Friday prayer for us all:

O God of truth and love, who desires not the death of sinners but rather that they should turn from their wickedness and live: Look with mercy on those who are deceived by the lies of the world, the flesh, and the devil; that the hearts of those who have gone astray may be restored to wisdom and return to the way of truth in the unity of your holy Church; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Good Friday by Christina Rossetti

Am I a stone, and not a sheep,

That I can stand, O Christ, beneath Thy cross,

To number drop by drop Thy blood’s slow loss,

And yet not weep?

Not so those women loved

Who, with exceeding grief lamented Thee;

Not so fallen Peter, weeping bitterly;

Not so, the thief was moved;

Not so the Sun and Moon

Which hid their faces in a starless sky,

A horror of great darkness at broad noon –