Good Friday
(Christian holiday)

Good Friday is the pivotal day of Holy Week, the last week of Lent, always falling on the Friday before Easter. It marks the day of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion in the Christian world.

Out of his love for humanity, the Son of God embraced suffering and death in order to defeat the power of evil through his resurrection at Easter, thereby redeeming the world. From the triumphal entry on Palm Sunday, Jesus had already spent five days in Jerusalem, though he often went to Bethany as well. The events of Good Friday are closely connected to those of the evening and night of Holy Thursday. Jesus’ Passion is recounted in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in the Bible.

After sharing the Passover meal with his disciples on Thursday evening, Jesus went to the Mount of Olives, to the Garden of Gethsemane. Knowing that he would soon be arrested, he wished to spend his remaining hours in prayer.

On this night, which extended into Good Friday, Jesus said to his disciples: "Sit here while I go over there and pray." (Matthew 26:36) He took Peter, and James and John, the sons of Zebedee, with him, asking them to stay awake and pray. "Then he went a little further, fell on his face, and prayed, saying, ‘O my Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.’" (Matthew 26:39)

The disciples, unaware of the suffering that awaited their Master, were too exhausted to keep watch with him. Jesus went to them three times, and each time he found them asleep. Despite his profound anguish and the suffering that loomed, he continued to pray, showing his absolute submission to God’s will, as the way to redemption lay through his suffering.