What Good Friday Means To Me

[JOHN ARNOLD]

What Good Friday Means to Me

I grew up in what I thought was a big city, Pittsburgh, Pa. I heard that it was one of the steel capitals of the world and at the top of the list to be bombed if the Russians attacked America. I thought it was big until I went to New York City.

Actually, the place I was born was called McKees Rocks (not too far from downtown Pittsburgh). My grandmother and step-grandfather lived there also. We lived in two separate apartments on the 3rd floor. Because we lived close we would visit Grandmother's apartment often. I remember the musty smell of those old apartment buildings, as we walked up the squeaky wooden stairs.

When we visited Grandmother's place, she had her old Bibles laying around her living room. They were all black in color with bright red leaves and they were always well-read and worn.

She had a picture of Jesus over her couch. It always attracted me. It was a night scene and Jesus was on a mountain overlooking the city praying. There were some palms that she received when she went to her church on Palm Sunday perched on top of the picture. They stayed up there all year until she got some new ones the next year. I thought, “ It sure would be great  to go to a church that gave palms to everyone.” Later in life, we made sure our church gave palms to everyone and it was a real joy to see all the children and adults take their palms home after church. JoAnn and I put our palms over a picture of Jesus in our living room, just like Grandma.

It happens like clockwork every year during this season, and it’s happening right now as I type these words.... I take a trip back in my mind's eye. There is something so sobering about this week. For me to think what Jesus did for me on the cross is a sacrifice too wonderful to take lightly. Every Good Friday my mind races back to my childhood days in the Sheridan section of Pittsburgh, PA in the 1950s. 

Good Friday, as I remember it, was a quiet day. Businesses were closed and churches were adorned with purple draped over the doors. The local cinema was open showing movies about the real meaning of Good Friday. You could feel it in the air that something was different about this day. As I pen these words I can still sense the stillness.

I was always perplexed as a kid about why this day was called Good Friday when Jesus gave His life on the cross. I eventually learned that it was Good that Jesus gave His life as a substitute for me so I wouldn’t have to be separated from God because of my sin. Jesus bore my sin on the cross so I could have fellowship with a Holy God.

Fast forward many years to our Easter services at Crossroads Ministries / Library Baptist: It was our tradition to give palms to those who attended. What a joy it was to see especially the kids waving their palms. Then on Good Friday, there was a Musical 

Drama depicting the death and resurrections of Jesus. It was a lot of work for the church to undertake at this busy time of year but God has always used it in a special way. 

It was 2001 and one of our members had been witnessing to her friend, Debby. She invited her to the Good Friday musical. Debby sat in the back of the church and observed intently. After the service, she got in her car and drove down the access road, turned right on RT 88 and headed into Finleyville. She was overtaken by emotion and tears, pulled off the road and had a meeting with Jesus. Deb later told me that it was the first time in her life that she realized that what Jesus did on the cross was for her personally….”It was for me.”

From that day on Deb was a new person. A few years later she made up tee shirts and inscribed on the front of them, “Good things still happen on Good Friday.” She has been used by God in wonderful ways since that 2001 Good Friday service.

Only God can do these things.

John Arnold