It’s Monday of Holy Week and I’ve (again) recently been asked this year the question that seems to emerge every year during Holy Week: “Why is Good Friday called Good Friday?”

Rather than launch into some deeply theological or academic answer (you can find a plethora of those on the intrawebs), let me share with you what I hope amounts to more of a personal, internalized response.

When I think of Jesus, I must always keep in the forefront of my mind that He is God incarnate. That is, God in human flesh. By the way, that’s as theological as this post will get. God became flesh in order to satisfy His own demands for holiness and a holy sacrifice. Why was a sacrifice needed at all? Because the Creator will not tolerate not being fully united with His creation. The perfect sacrifice of the perfect Savior created a perfect salvation that is perfectly accessible to any and all who will believe.

Because you and are…well…imperfect, we couldn’t have provided that perfect sacrifice on our own.

So Jesus humbled Himself by taking on the flesh of humanity and came to live among us. As He did, He gave us a clear reflection of God’s Kingdom and all that it entails. He loved, He taught, He shepherded, He healed, He put justice and righteousness on display, and He willingly crescendoed His earthly ministry with a one-two punch that defeated sin and death for all time.

The cross Jesus died on wasn’t a new invention. The Romans had perfected this method of execution. They didn’t invent crucifixion, but it’s fair to say that they nailed it. Pun intended.

So when we think of Jesus, we must always keep His mission central. Jesus didn’t happen to fall onto the cross. He didn’t get himself wrapped up in the wrong crowd and thereby found Himself on the wrong end of the law, and hanging on a cross. This wasn’t a curveball in His mission. It WAS His mission. Jesus wasn’t a victim as He hung on that cross. This was the script from the beginning. The cross was precisely why He came at all. For Jesus, the cross was Job One.

The hours that Jesus spent on that cross were prepared and planned out millennia beforehand. Read Genesis chapter 3. All of eternity had awaited this crushing blow that Jesus delivered through His death.

And all of creation was the recipient of grace through the shed blood of Jesus’ death on that cross. No one is left out of the invitation to come and take the gift that Jesus offers through the work of the cross. The thief that hung next to Jesus wasn’t just a random or mildly interesting addition to the story. No, no, no. The thief is all of us. The guilty given grace. Jesus said to him that day and it echoes for us today: “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Still wonder why Good Friday is Good Friday? Ask yourself these questions:

1. Since God’s holiness demands a holy sacrifice, what hope do I have in attaining holiness on my own?
2. If God, through Jesus, provided the necessary sacrifice to forgive my sins, what is keeping me from receiving that gift through faith in Jesus alone?
3. As a forgiven child of God, how can I set my heart on the good news of Jesus’ sacrificial death on my behalf? Who in my life needs to be told or reminded of His love for them?

I trust that as we move through Holy Week, our hearts will be set on the cross of Jesus and the Good that was done there. I’ll finish where I started: there are other explanations as to why we call it Good Friday, but when it comes to the saving of our souls, I’d argue that none matter as much.