Dr. Rob Boyd spoke during chapel about the Holy Week and Good Friday. He walks through the Holy Week, starting at Palm Sunday and ending with Resurrection Sunday.

Scripture Texts

Romans 12:2; John 3:16; Luke 19:28-44; John 19

Main Points or Ideas

• Passion Week: the events that lead to the cross - Boyd walks through each day of Holy Week in sequence. Sunday: the triumphal entry, with crowds spreading cloaks and palm branches and shouting "Hosanna." Monday: Jesus cleanses the temple, overturning the money-changers' tables and driving out merchants. Tuesday: the fig tree has withered; Jesus debates the chief priests and Pharisees in the temple, and Judas — furious over the costly perfume poured on Jesus — slips away to make his deal with the Jewish leaders. Wednesday: a day of silence and solitude. Thursday: the upper room Passover meal, where Jesus institutes the Lord's Supper, washes the disciples' feet, and then prays in Gethsemane while the disciples sleep.
• Good Friday: the arrest, trials, and crucifixion - In the early hours of Friday, Judas arrives at the garden with the authorities and identifies Jesus with a kiss. Peter denies the Lord three times as the rooster crows. Jesus is taken to the high priest, then to Pilate, then to Herod, then back to Pilate. The crowd chooses Barabbas. Jesus is flogged, crowned with thorns, forced to carry his cross to Golgotha, and crucified between two thieves. His final words: "It is finished."
• Why it is called good - Boyd answers his own question directly: it is Good Friday because God loved sinners so much that he sent his Son to pay a debt they could not pay. The wages of sin is death — and Jesus died in their place. It is good because those who believe in him will not perish but have everlasting life. It is good because the story does not end at the cross. On Sunday morning, the stone was rolled away and the angel's message was clear: He is not here. He is risen, just as he said.

Conclusion

Good Friday is good because we are forgiven, because eternal life is freely offered, and because the gospel — the good news that Christ died so that we could live — is now ours to share with a world that desperately needs to hear it.