We don't usually think about it very much, but I suspect that, to a person who knows nothing about Christianity, it would seem more than a little strange that we call the day Jesus was killed "good." Jesus is our God, the founder of our religion (trying to describe it from their point of view, not mine), the good man that we follow. Why would we celebrate his death, and more than that, why would we call it good?
One perspective would be that it is "good" for us, because his death paid the price for our salvation, and that is true from a believer's perspective, but that is far too self-centered to be the whole picture. I don't think that salvation is nearly as human-centric as we sometimes think. Certainly it is true that God loved/loves us and that means that we have worth as an individual. But, I don't think that salvation is fundamentally just saving us from damnation. It's not a "get out of hell" pass. It's not a ticket to heaven. Those things are included, but not the center.
Salvation is a restoration of a relationship that should never have been broken in the first place. Adam sinned as he rebelled against God. He didn't believe God, didn't trust God, and even to the extent that he did believe, he still decided to go his own way. We are born alienated from God. Our true "damnation" is not just to hell, but to an alienation from God--and by extension, alienation from each other. In fact, C.S. Lewis described hell that way--as the place where man finally gets his wish to be independent and to get his own way. It is for people who, instead of saying as Christ did, "nevertheless, thy will be done," say, "my will be done." Hell is taking our current state of alienation, and making it eternal and more stark. God, in his extreme mercy, gives us a chance to return to the relationship that we were created to have, primarily with God, but also with others by extension.
And, that is the gospel that turns everything that seems real to us upside down. We like the concrete, but God offers us hope. We like it now, but God offers us only a little bit now, with the promise of glory to come. We like things that we can understand, can picture, and can see examples of in nature around us. But Christ offered a gospel that turned it all upside down and backwards. Those who are called "blessed" in the Beatitudes don't sound very blessed in normal human thinking. Christ said to turn the other cheek, to offer a man your cloak, to love your enemies, and much more. He said that, if we want to lead, we have to serve and take the lowest place of a slave or a child. He said that if we want to really, really live, we have to die.
That doesn't make much sense to us most of the time. I know that we can describe it in ways that do make sense and even to say that it doesn't make much sense will probably provoke a strong reaction among a lot of Christians. But, it's easy to tell people what this means and rejoice in this grace in church. It's a lot harder to live it outside (or even in church, for that matter). So, we don't turn the other cheek and don't teach our kids to do so either. We value strength, independence, freedom, honor, glory, position, power. We preach the walk, but seldom really walk the walk. We don't really believe that what Christ tells us to do can really be good. It doesn't make sense.
And, maybe that's what makes Good Friday "good." It's a reminder to us that God doesn't do it the way we would expect. It reminds us that things don't often go the way we want them to go, or in the way that makes sense to us. It reminds us that disaster can be victory, that death really does bring life, that turning the other cheek is not just an ideal or a platitude. It's the way God did it. It tells us that God is the ruler of the universe and that nothing escapes his control. It tells us that, even when he seems to lose control (Can God be killed? Crucified by man?), that is the moment when he exhibits the most power. It's not the kind of power that makes a showy display. It's the kind that gets the job done without anyone noticing that it's working.
Remember when Joseph's father Jacob dies and Joseph's brothers begin to again fear for their lives. How could Joseph not punish them? He had been holding back because he didn't want to hurt his aging father, but now with the father gone, he could do with them as he wished. With that fear in their hearts, they come to him to manipulate him based on the memory of the father and to beg him to forgive them. He responds almost with incredulity, telling them that he couldn't possibly usurp the place of God, but then adds to that a statement that is so simple, but so fraught with meaning. He doesn't at all belittle their sin or overlook their guilt, but he paints a picture of a God who is in completely control, even as they followed their own free will. He says (my paraphrase), "What you did was evil, as you schemed against God, but God had his own plans and He made your plans result in accomplishing His." God is so sovereign that his "rule" is almost incomprehensible to us. He can accomplish his will without pulling strings to make us do anything. The brothers followed their own wicked plans, but in doing so, the put Joseph in the place so that his dreams were fulfilled. They bowed down to him of their own free will.
Tolkien said, "All that is gold does not glitter, not all those that wander are lost." Things are not as they seem. There is a player in the background, and he always gets his way. we don't have to understand; we don't have to see how this is going to work. Good Friday is "good" because it tells us that God's will will be done, on earth as in heaven. There is nothing at all--even what seems to be abject weakness, passivity, and failure--that can stop him from accomplishing his will. That is what is "good" about it.
And so, we can celebrate Good Friday just as much as we can celebrate Easter and resurrection. We can be thankful (which is what the ancient word for the Lord's Supper, the Eucharist, means) for his death. Our thankfulness is not selfish or self-centered because it is not based on what we got out of it. It is because we get to see a glimpse of the power and glory of God even when He does not look at all powerful. And, that is the gospel, that is our faith. It is foolishness to the world because it is completely backwards from our thinking. But, it is that which gives us the power to live as Christ commanded, because we can know that there is nothing at all that Satan or anyone else can possibly do to impede the will of God. No one can harm us as we trust in Him. Nothing can separate us from the love of God and nothing is outside his realm of authority.
And, that is truly good.
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