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3 Questions to Ask on Good Friday
Reflecting on What the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Means for Us
Ryan Patrick Murphy
April 18, 2025
All over the world today, followers of Jesus are commemorating, celebrating, fasting, and paying attention to the death of Jesus on the cross — the event that changed history that happened two thousand years ago.
It’s quite possible that the term "Good” is a descendant of the term “God Friday” that has been lost over the years, yet the purpose is the same — today we commemorate and remember the death of Jesus — God in the flesh — for us.
Consider these words from the Gospel of John:
14 It was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about noon.
“Here is your king,” Pilate said to the Jews.
15 But they shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!”
“Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked.
“We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered.
16 Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.
So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. 17 Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). 18 There they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle…
28 Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” 29 A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. 30 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
While we remember this Friday as “Good,” it is decidedly not — it is filled with betrayal, mockery, physical pain, darkness, and the utter devastation of an unwanted death.
In retrospect, it is “Good,” but before we rush to resurrection, we have to name with honesty that this brutal death precedes the resurrection.
In our lives, we are often prone to rush through the deaths to get to the resurrection. We are apt to put a happy spin on pain in our lives, as if pretending can make what’s hard go away. Due to our discomfort with pain, we can rename what’s hard or sad “Good” without ever taking the time to enter into the holy death that is the prerequisite to resurrection.
This is, of course, not primarily my thinking but is the thinking of our Lord:
24 Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain, but if it dies it bears much fruit. 25 Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.
Anyone who seeks to follow Jesus must inevitably follow him to the cross.
Anyone who wants to experience resurrection power must first embrace the death of the old self with Jesus on the cross, which is the holy privilege and honor of everyone who wants to follow a crucified Savior.
So, I have to ask, how are you doing at dying today?
How are you doing at grieving your losses? How are you doing at letting go of old places, relationships, mindsets, patterns, ideals, or dreams? How are you doing at throwing off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles (Hebrews 12:1)?
Arthur Brooks, a Harvard professor and researcher of happiness, cites research that argues that most people experience life transitions every 12 to 18 months, and major life “earthquakes” three to five times in their life. He argues:
“Those who benefit the most from painful periods are those who spend time experiencing and processing them. The right strategy is to accept transitions as an integral part of life, and lean into them.”
It would seem that God has hardwired it into the human experience that we must experience transitions — that we must grieve old things and let them go in order to embrace new things.
Thankfully, as followers of Jesus, we have a Guide who has modeled once and for all how to die and rise again.
The death at Christ is all at once an event in history, a moment we are invited into at our moment of salvation (Galatians 2:20), and a model for our continual discipleship to Jesus. Even Paul said that he faces death every day (1 Cor 15:31) — both a testimony to the danger of his call as an apostle and testimony to way he has embraced the death and resurrection of Jesus as a pattern for his own life, and the way he models behavior for the early churches (1 Cor 11:1).
So today, I’d love to invite us to meditate again on the crucfixion story. And I’d love to invite us to ask the Holy Spirit to breathe fresh life on this story, and to help us to find ourselves in it — for it to shape us and form us as we follow him.
I’d love to offer three questions for us to reflect on this Good Friday:
The Journey of Jesus to the Cross // Where can you identify with Jesus’s journey to the cross?
On the journey of Jesus to the cross, he faces the betrayal of Judas, the mockery of the priests, the failure of leaders to protect him, the abandonment of his community, and the physical pain of suffering and death. The author of Hebrews encourages us:
15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Whatever suffering we might be experiencing, Jesus has, too! Are you resonating today with anything from Jesus’ journey to the cross: mockery, betrayal, isolation, the failure of leaders, abandonment, or physical pain? How might Jesus want to “empathize” with you today?
The Death of Jesus // What are you dying to today?
What are you dying to or letting go of this Good Friday? Is there an idea, a habit, a pattern, a sin, a lie, a mindset, an ideal, a dream, or an expectation that the Holy Spirit might be inviting you to die to today? Is there anything from the past season still hanging onto you that it’s time to shake off — to put on the cross with Jesus?
The Resurrection of Jesus // What are you rising again to?
What new thing do you sense God awakening in your life as you look towards Resurrection Sunday? Are there any new dreams, relationships, ideas, places, patterns, or areas of promise in your life that seem to be shimmering with hope or potential for your next season? Are there perhaps some dreams that God might want to bring resurrection to? Or spiritual gifts you haven’t used in a while that God might want to blow the dust off of? Or, is there area of your life do you hope God brings resurrection to in this next season — but you’re not sure yet?
If I can ever support you in your journey of coming alive and living in love with Jesus, please don’t hesitate to hit “reply” on this email and let me know.
-Ryan
P.S. It is one of the greatest joys of my life to help people come alive and live in love with Jesus, especially by waking up to the continual conversation we get to enjoy with God. Our team is working on creating some beautiful prayer resources this year, starting with a daily prayer journal designed to help you grow in your ability to hear God’s voice. Please consider becoming a founding partner with us to receive every resource we create in 2025 completely free!