Good Friday
The day of Jesus’s crucifixion is the most solemn day of the Christian year. In Greek Christianity it is called “the Holy and Great Friday”, in Romance languages, “Holy Friday”, and in German, “Sorrowful Friday.” In the English-speaking world, it is, of course “Good Friday.” The origin of the English designation is uncertain; it may derive from “God's” Friday or may have begun as “Good” Friday. In either case, it may come from German, where the day was also known as Gottes Feitag (“God’s Friday) and as Gute Freitag (“Good Friday”).
Did Good Friday have to happen? As divine necessity? No. As human inevitability, virtually. Good Friday is the result of the collision between the passion of Jesus and the domination systems of his time.
It is important to realize that what killed Jesus was nothing unusual. We have no reason to think that the temple authorities were wicked people. Moreover, as empires go, Rome was better than most. There was nothing exceptional or abnormal about it; this is simply the way domination systems behave. So common is this dynamic that it can also be called the normalcy of civilization. At a broad level of generalization, Good Friday was the result of the collision between the passion of Jesus and the normalcy of civilization.
This realization generates an additional reflection. According to Mark, Jesus did not die for the sins of the world. The language of substitutionary sacrifice for sin is absent from his story. But in an important sense, he was killed because of the sin of the world. It was the injustice of domination systems that killed him, injustice so routine that it is part of the normalcy of civilization. Though sin means more than this, it includes this. And thus Jesus was crucified because of the sin of the world.
Marcus Borg, John Dominic Crossan, The Last Week.
