Christians worldwide are currently celebrating Holy Week, a week during the holy season of Lent. It marks the immediate events and circumstances that led to the death of Jesus Christ. One of the most important days of the week is known as “Good Friday”, commemorated as the day Jesus died.
Meaning of Good Friday
Good Friday is a holy Christian day commemorating the crucifixion and death of Jesus on the cross at Golgotha, just outside Jerusalem. Christians mark the day in remembrance as one in which Jesus willingly suffered and died as the ultimate sacrifice for the sins of humankind and the redemption of the world.
It is the second day of the Paschal (Easter) Triduum marked during Holy Week and the Friday before Easter. Its celebration dates back to the 4th century and is observed by various Christian denominations, including the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Lutheran, Anglican, Methodist, Oriental Orthodox, and Reformed traditions.
Good Friday Date of 2022
The date of Good Friday varies every year in both the Gregorian calendar (adopted by the Roman Catholic Church) and the Julian calendar (adopted by the Eastern Orthodox Church). The date of Good Friday on the Gregorian calendar, used in countries with adherents of the Catholic, Anglican, Methodist and Protestant Christian domination, is 15 April 2022.
However, the Eastern Orthodox Church, with adherents in Russia, Ukraine, Greece, Romania, Belarus, Bulgaria, Serbia, Georgia, North Macedonia, Cyprus, Montenegro, Ethiopia, and Egypt, among others, observes the holy day on 22 April 2022.
Also, some Baptist congregations do not celebrate Good Friday on a Friday; instead, they commemorate the day on Wednesday of the Holy Week to coincide with the Jewish sacrifice of the Passover Lamb.
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Why do they call it Good Friday?
There is no unanimity as to why it is referred to as Good Friday. It is also called Great and Holy Friday (also Holy and Great Friday) in the Greek liturgy, Holy Friday, Great Friday, Karfreitag (Sorrowful Friday) in German, Long Friday by the Anglo-Saxons, and Black Friday by some Christian dominations.
Fiona MacPherson, Senior Editor at the Oxford English Dictionary notes that “good” refers to “a day or season observed as holy by the church”. The dictionary also notes that Good Friday may have also developed from a less well-known practice of Good Wednesday, namely the Wednesday before Easter.
Another explanation from The Catholic Encyclopedia, first published in 1907, notes that the phrase’s origin, according to some sources, came from the term “God’s Friday” or Gottes Freitag, while others maintain that it is from the German Gute Freitag. The phrase, by these sources, is, therefore, probably a corruption of “God’s Friday”, the way of the term “goodbye”, which emanates from a contraction of the phrase “God Be With You”.
What happened on Good Friday in the Bible?
The betrayal
They arrested Jesus either the night before or the early hours of Passover at the Garden of Gethsemane, where he had gone to meditate, after Judas Iscariot, one of his 12 apostles, betrayed him. Judas subsequently received 30 pieces of silver from the chief priests, as stated in Matthew 26:15, as a reward for his action.
The trial
Following his arrest, Jesus was, according to John 18:13, taken to Annas, the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the High Priest at that period. After he found nothing concrete against Jesus, Annas then transferred him to Caiaphas, the High Priest and leader of the Sanhedrin (Jewish Supreme Court). The Sanhedrin interrogated Jesus and could not find anything to implicate him, despite the litany of accusations against him as he remained silent.
Caiaphas then asked Jesus whether he was the Christ. He replied: “The words are your own: and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.” The High Priest tore his cloth and accused Jesus of blasphemy, and the Sanhedrin subsequently condemned him to death (Mark 14:61-65).
At daylight, Jesus was led from the house of Caiaphas to the Praetorium to face Pontious Pilate, the Roman Governor of Judea. Following the accusations made by the Jews of revolting against Caesar and claiming to be the Christ, Pilate questioned Jesus and asked if he was the king of the Jews. Jesus replied: “it is you who say it.” (Luke 23:1-3). Pilate then said he found no fault in Jesus, but the people vocally opposed his decision. However, when Pilate heard that Jesus was a Galilean and was under the jurisdiction of Herod (the Roman King of Judea), he sent him over to Herod.
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The chief priests and the scribes intensified their accusations against Jesus and Herod questioned him at length but got no reply from Jesus. Herod then sent Jesus back to Pilate.
The condemnation
Pilate told the assembly that neither he nor Herod found Jesus to be guilty and resolved to have Jesus whipped and released. However, the people, led by the chief priests, shouted their voices “away with him”, and “Crucify him” (Luke 23:18-22, John 19:1-6). Pilate then announced to the people that they should release Jesus in line with the practice of releasing a prisoner at the Passover.
The crowd rejected and instead demanded Barabbas, a man locked in prison for causing a riot and for murder.. Pilate insisted that he found no fault in Jesus and that the accused had done no wrong and requested to release him. He was afraid of the peoples’ threat of designating him as a person who was defying Tiberius Caesar, the Roman Emperor (John 19:12-15); Pilate granted their demand: he handed over Jesus to the chief priests and scribes to be crucified and released Barabbas.
Jesus carried a cross through the streets.
The journey to Golgotha
Fearful that he might die on the way instead of the inglorious public death on the cross they had planned for him, the soldiers enlisted a passer-by, Simon of Cyrene, to carry the cross (Luke 23:26). Followed by the women of Jerusalem, led by Mary, his mother, Jesus carried the cross and fell three times throughout the journey. He finally reached the place of The Skull or Golgotha. The soldiers divided his clothing into four parts and also threw a dice to decide who took his tunic, which was seamless.
The crucifixion and death
Jesus was subsequently crucified with two others, one on either side and him in the centre. Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross. It read: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. After darkness had enveloped all over the land till the ninth hour, Jesus drank vinegar, which was put on hyssop and then shouted: “Father, ‘into Your hands I commit My spirit’ (Luke 23:44). He then bowed his head and died.
The burial
Joseph of Arimathea, a secret disciple of Jesus; and Nicomedus, who, according to John 19:39, had first come to Jesus by night, in the company of his mother, Mary, and his other disciples removed him from the cross and buried him in a new tomb no one had ever been laid.’
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