Good Friday is about our healing, not just our sin

Good Friday is about our healing, not just our sin.

Peter Chattaway reviews The Christ, a new audio drama telling the Easter story, featuring David Oyelowo as Pontius Pilate and Paul Walter Hauser as John the Baptist.

Hans Holbein the Younger’s painting of a dead Christ on Holy Saturday gripped Fyodor Dostoevsky, transforming his faith—and teaching us about resisting the rush from cross to empty tomb.

On The Bulletin, the crew analyzes Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s imprecatory prayer against America’s enemies, the Supreme Court’s ruling on sexuality-and-gender therapy, and the job market for college grads.

Historian John Fea considers a new book in light of two earlier works that might help Christians consider the "God-inspired" manifest destiny that devastated Native American culture in early US history.

From our Lent devotional: Why do we call Christ’s death "good"?

Behind the Story

From senior editorial project manager Mia Staub: I chuckled while reading the introduction to Jeremy Treat’s article on Good Friday. Treat happens to be my pastor, and he starts his piece by acknowledging some of the silly ways humans have attempted to heal themselves. It made me think of my daily walk in Los Angeles, which passes a skin care spa, a marijuana dispensary, and an Erewhon where you can buy sea moss the colors of the rainbow or the most expensive smoothies you have ever seen, all of these places a testament to self-induced wellness.

But the sickness we humans are inflicted with is more holistic than any manmade remedy can fix. The whole earth and our whole health—spiritual, emotional, mental, physical—feel the weight of the Fall. Good Friday, as Treat explains, is about Jesus as our healer. The Cross is the remedy for our ailments.

Tonight, my church, along with many other churches, is holding a Good Friday service. The evening is often full of melancholy, lament, and grief while acknowledging the consequences of our sin. Our grief is not in vain, because Christ is our healer and the Cross is the start of our healing.  A Nigerian court ruled in favor of the United Methodist Church (UMC), saying the breakaway Global Methodists could not retain the name and financial resources of the UMC. CT has covered how tensions between Methodists in Nigeria have led to violence. A Loyola University student who was closely involved with Cru was murdered, allegedly by an undocumented immigrant, as she and her friends were looking at the northern lights. Her death became a national flashpoint for political leaders, and Cru’s Loyola chapter penned a tribute to the young woman.  Pew has a new map showing the geography of religious radio stations in the US—Texas has the most, but Alaska has the most per capita. Today in Christian History April 3, 1593: George Herbert, one of England's greatest religious poets, is born in Montgomery Castle. After shocking the country by quitting his skyrocketing political life to become rector of rural Bremerton (a post he held for three years), "Holy Mr. Herbert" died of tuberculosis.