Holy Week - Journey to the Ultimate Overcomer: Good Friday

By Shelsea Becker

Good Friday.

I’ve often found it a little unsettling that we call this day “good.” Where did that even begin? Who decided to label the day Christ was brutally sacrificed as good? The truth is, what Jesus did is incredibly good, but the day itself was horrific. It was violent. It was painful. And total honesty, it was because of my sin, and yours, that He was on that cross. I don’t want to associate my sin with something good. There is a weight to that realization. There is a soberness to it. The suffering He endured is beyond what my mind can fully comprehend, and sometimes I think when we say “Good Friday,” we risk losing the depth and gravity of what was actually happening.

The term “Good Friday” is believed to have originated from the older meaning of the word “good,” which also meant holy or sacred. Some traditions even called it “God’s Friday.” So while the events of the day were anything but pleasant, the outcome, the whole reason behind it, was holy, sacred, and ultimately good. And we know it had to happen. It was prophesied long before in Isaiah 53, where we are told that He would be pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities.This was intentional. This was the plan.

So how do we hold this day? I don’t want to live in constant grief over my sin, but I also refuse to gloss over the price that was paid. Not just for me, but for all of mankind. There is a balance here. A reverence. A weight. Today is a day to pause and reflect honestly. How far have you come this year? Is there anything still hindering your walk? Anything out of order? This is the day to repent, to realign, to bring things back into right standing. Because Jesus didn’t come to abolish the law, He came to fulfill it. That is why, with His final breath, He said, “It is finished.” Not “I am finished,” but “It is finished.” The work. The requirement. The law fulfilled in full.

That is what is good.

He did what we could never do for ourselves. From the very beginning, He was with God, and now He steps in to show us that the law can only be fulfilled by God Himself. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…” That is love. True love lays down its life for another. There is a weight to that kind of love. A depth that calls for a response.

When you think about the color red today, don’t associate it with things like anger or intensity the way the world might. See it for what it represents here —blood that covers sin, blood that creates a way when there was no other way, blood that establishes covenant and seals us in unfailing love.

The stone, Carnelian, from some traditional sources, associates it with the tribe of Levi—the priesthood. The ones who handled the sacrifices. During Passover, the amount of blood the priests would have encountered is almost unimaginable. Historians estimate that thousands upon thousands of lambs were sacrificed, especially during peak pilgrimage years. Each lamb’s throat would be cut, the blood collected, and then used in ritual. Blood was everywhere. It was central. It was necessary. It was the means by which atonement was made.

This is the same blood that, in Exodus, was placed over the doorposts so that death would pass over the Israelites in Egypt. The blood marked them. It protected them. It signified covenant.

And now… Jesus. The Lamb.

His blood wasn’t sprinkled. It was poured out. Completely. Fully. More than enough.

So much blood was shed that day; the day we call Good Friday.

And maybe instead of rushing past it, we let it sit with us. Let it carry its weight. Let it bring us back to a place of reverence. Because what happened on that cross was not casual. It was costly.

And it changed everything.

❤️ Shelsea

P.S.

Scripture gives us the stones and the tribes, but does not explicitly match them. Any pairing is based on tradition, not direct biblical text. (Talmud, Midrash Rabbah, Josephus)

Scripture References:

Isaiah 53:5–7 

John 3:16 

Matthew 5:17 

John 19:30 

John 1:1 

Exodus 12:7, 12–13