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.
