Commemorating Good Friday

            Christians around the world commemorate Good Friday on the Friday before Easter. I have also heard this day called “Black Friday,” which to me seems more applicable. This is a day when the followers of Jesus Christ remember His suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane and on Golgotha. It is a day of sorrow and mourning as we remember that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was beaten and crucified. The day is apparently “good” because it is the day that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ showed how much they love all mankind.

            Heavenly Father showed His love by allowing His Beloved Son to suffer, bleed, and die that all of His children might live again. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). The Savior of the world showed His love by giving His life in our behalf. I have come to recognize in recent years that the Father made a great sacrifice in allowing the Atonement of Jesus Christ to take place.

            Some years ago my sixteen-year-old daughter suffered a broken leg in a soccer game. The hit by the goalie was so severe that there was a triangle-shaped piece of bone broken in her tibia. The only way to secure the bone was to install a titanium rod down the inside of the bone from the knee to the ankle. The pain was excruciating. My daughter arrived in her hospital room before the doctor sent his order for pain medication. Therefore, the nurses could give her a bare minimum that seemed to last only a few minutes. I longed to do something to bring her comfort, but there was absolutely nothing that I could do except call for the nurse to bring more pain killer. As I stood beside my daughter’s bed and watched her suffer from the great pain, the Holy Ghost spoke to me and said, “This is the way that I felt when my Son hung on the cross.”

            Previous to this experience I had never considered the feelings of the Father when I pondered the Atonement of the Son. It simply had never entered my mind. Since this experience I can never reflect upon the suffering of the Son without thinking of the Father also.

            Even though Black Friday is sad for most Christians, there is light in the distance because we know that Sunday always follows Friday. We know that Jesus Christ gave His life on the cross for us, and we know that His body was laid in a borrowed tomb. We know that He walked out of the tomb on the third day and became the first mortal to resurrect. We also know that all mortals will be resurrected and receive immortal bodies because Christ overcame death.

            So on this Good Friday I have pondered the illegal trial of Jesus Christ, His suffering in Gethsemane, and His crucifixion on the Golgotha or Calvary. I look forward to celebrating His resurrection on Easter Sunday.