Bound, scourged, beaten, mocked, spat upon, made to carry/drag a heavy load up a hill, nailed to a cross, made to suffer the tortuous death of a criminal although an innocent man. This does not sound like the way a good day should play out. In fact, it sounds like a terrible day. The worst day. Throw in the fact that the Light of the world was extinguished. Big storm. The curtains of the Temple split asunder. Good Friday? Not by a long shot, except for one miraculous detail.
Not a very good Friday
Having seen many crucifixes hanging on the walls of homes and Catholic Churches, I have always been struck by the almost antiseptic look of the crucified Christ. Nearly all the sculpted images show Jesus as being in pretty good shape. Pretty pristine. Not until I saw The Passion of the Christ, the 2004
movie by Mel Gibson, did I truly connect with the absolute brutality with which Jesus was treated. I am still horrified nearly to tears at the images of the scourging. The scourge that was used on the Lamb of God was an instrument designed to inflict ultimate pain, to wreak incredible havoc on the 
human body. A whip-like device, the scourge had pieces of metal or bone incorporated into the several lashes which were meant, not just to bruise and cut, but to savagely rip flesh from the body on the receiving end of its sting. Jesus was not just whipped. He was scourged! Not a good day for any man.
Via Dolorosa
After being further mistreated by the Roman guards, made to wear a crown of thorns and beaten on the head with a rod Jesus was made to carry his own
cross, his device of further shame and eventual death, up the Via Dolorosa (meaning sorrowful way) from the Praetorium, where He had been sentenced, to Golgotha, the Hill of Skulls. Hardly able to stand, losing large amounts of blood, falling twice, finally Simon the Cyrene was enlisted to carry His burden. Good Friday? This is sounding like a horrible day and it is not nearly over.
The Weight of the World
Our Saviour was surely reaching the lowest point in his young life. The devastating torture was horrible but maybe not the worst of Jesus’ pain. Along with everything that Jesus had and was about to endure, Jesus was carrying the weight and suffering caused by shouldering the sins of the world. Not just man’s previously committed sins but all of mankind’s future sins as well. What a crushing load!
Back to the cross. . . Jesus was nailed, hand and foot, to this object of punishment and shame, then hoisted into the air to hang for hours. Designed
to make it excruciatingly difficult to breathe, Jesus embraced the indignity of the cross. Suffering, bleeding, extremely weak, laboring to breathe, he still mustered the compassion to pardon the sins of one of the criminals who occupied this despised hill alongside his own cross. He may have been spared, due to his condition, the further insult of watching the guards cast lots for his clothing.
The Light of the World is extinguished
He finally gave up His life in an indescribable cry of anguish, asking God to forgive his persecutors. Enter the aforementioned storm and curtain tearing. The Lamb had been sacrificed for the sins of many. Jesus was innocent. He knew no sin but became sin. The Light of the world was extinguished. The WORD had been taken out of the world He came to save. Jesus’ lifeless form was taken down from the cross and placed in a tomb.
Good Friday transformed
Here is the big payoff. The miracle that turned the worst of Fridays into Good Friday. The best of Fridays. On the third day, Jesus arose from the tomb. The grave could not hold Him. Prophesy was fulfilled in the Resurrection of the Christ. All that heinous punishment that was dealt out on Friday was necessary to fulfill the Profits. The U shaped drama had been acted out. God
came down from Heaven and became man. He suffered death on the cross and was buried. He defeated the grave and rose from the tomb. In forty days he would ascend to His seat at the right hand of the Father. No slight of hand. No conspiracy. No mass hallucination. The mystery of Faith is etched on the hearts of Christians everywhere. Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again. Hallelujah!