He was despised and rejected by men;
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

(Is 53:3 ESV)

Today is Good Friday in the Western tradition. Christians today celebrate (if that’s the right word) and remember the death of Christ on a cross, as the act of redemption. I gave a bit of thought to the significance of this, and came up with the following idea:

I thought that it is important to remember that Christ’s suffering was not limited to the single event of the crucifixion on Good Friday. His life did not just end in sorrow, but he was “a man of sorrows and aquainted with grief”. (Is 53:3 ESV) As the Heidelberg Catechism states, “During his whole life on earth, but especially at the end, Christ sustained … the anger of God”. (QA 37, emphasis mine)

This is evident throughout the gospel. At the beginning of his ministry, the people of his town tried to throw him off a cliff. (Lk. 4) His message was a difficult one: “Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.” (Lk. 12:51 ESV) He was constantly and bitterly fighting against those with religious and political power.

In the days closer to his death, this grew stronger. He was betrayed by one of those closest to him. Another of his disciples publicly disowned him. He was given an unfair trial, with the use of false witnesses. (Mt. 26:60) The crowd desired his condemnation rather than “a notorious prisoner”. (Mt. 27:16 ESV) He was mocked in front of an entire battalion of soldiers. (Mt. 27:27)

For the crucifixion is something foreign to us. We have seen nobody being crucified, and certainly none of us has gone through that experience. Thus, Good Friday becomes an event in the past, still, we know, of the utmost significance, but we are removed more than a few steps from it.

But who has not been “despised and rejected”, who has not seen at least some sorrow or grief? We all have firsthand knowledge and experience of these: we have been betrayed, disowned; we have taken up hard fights against those with more power than us; we see injustice everywhere.

In this, we also participate in Good Friday. Those were our sufferings he bore. In the reverse, they are his sufferings we have ourselves and see around us. Through his death, one day these sufferings will be removed from us. Also, we in our moments of pain come to comprehend a small part of the agony of Christ, feeling it firsthand ourselves. This gives us a depth and sincerity to our appreciation for the magnitude of what he did, as his sufferings were so much greater yet than all that is in and around us.

What then should we do? Looking upon the example of Christ, who bore our pain and suffered for us, we ought to also attempt then to bear and eliminate the sufferings of others. This is a call for us – to search out ways we can aid, showing people why Good Friday is indeed Good.