In just a few days we celebrate “Good Friday”―a good day, no, a great day for us, for mankind―but not so good for Jesus.

On the night before his crucifixion, Jesus spent his last few hours with his disciples preparing them for what would take place on that Friday. After he established what we know as the Lord’s Supper, he washed his disciples’ feet, and then Jesus took them to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray.

It is in the Garden where Jesus revealed the depth of his distress as the reality of Friday drew near. Filled with anguish and despair, he turned to Peter, James, and John and said, “My soul is crushed with horror and sadness to the point of death, stay here, stay awake with me.”         (Matt. 26:37 TLB) In the Message translation, it states that Jesus “plunged into an agonizing sorrow.” And then he prayed this intense prayer―not once but three times:

“Abba, Father, everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me.” (Mark 14:36 NIV)

Jesus was asking the Father if there could be another way to make a “way” of salvation for mankind―a way he could forego the cross. Jesus was facing the most difficult decision of his human life: would he choose the Father’s will or his will? His agony over the choice was so great that Jesus “sweat drops of blood.” Why the agony? Why the horror? Why the deep distress?

There is no dispute that crucifixion is a horrific and tortuous way to die, but it was not a unique execution in the first century. I propose that the agony, horror, and distress Jesus experience stemmed not from the dread of the physical pain he would experience, but from the truth that on that cross Jesus would become sin for us. The apostle Paul explains what took place on the cross:

“For God took the sinless Christ and poured into him our sins. Then, in exchange, he poured God’s goodness into us.”                                (2 Corinthians 5:21 TLB)

Imagine what it must have been like for Jesus who had never experienced sin―never experienced the guilt, the shame, the condemnation of sin―to experience it in full. But most of all, Jesus knew in the moment he became our sin, for the first time in his existence, he would experience the agony, the horror, the deep distress of being separated from God the Father.

This is why as the three o’clock hour drew near, the crucified Christ cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Matt. 15:34)

This is why Jesus sweat drops of blood. This is why for Jesus that Friday was not a good day, but a necessary day.  For Jesus knew that by embracing this horrific Friday, a glorious Sunday would be possible, and that Sunday would be his “good’ day, and yet another great day for us!