What Good Friday Teaches Me About Hope

We are just over one week away from Good Friday, and every year, this solemn day prompts me to pause in my busyness and reflect on its lessons.

It’s quiet. Heavy. A day that reminds me of suffering, betrayal, grief, and death. And yet, somehow, this somber moment in the story of Jesus teaches me more about hope than almost anything else.

Because if hope can survive a cross, it can survive anything.

The Cross Confronts Our Pain

Good Friday doesn’t look away from sorrow. It stares straight into it.

In a world that constantly tells us to “look on the bright side” or to numb our pain with distractions, Good Friday feels like a holy interruption. It reminds me it’s okay to grieve. That God doesn’t skip over our pain, pretend it doesn’t exist, or tell us to get over it.

The cross meets us in the most raw and vulnerable places of our story. In betrayal. In heartbreak. In silence. In loss. And it says: “You’re not alone.”

Hope begins with honesty. The honesty that dares to acknowledge how broken things really are. Because if God could be present on a blood-stained hill outside Jerusalem, then maybe He’s also present in the messiest parts of my life, too.

One Can Discover Hope in Silence.

Between Good Friday and Easter morning, there’s a whole day we often overlook: Saturday.

The day nothing happened. The day the tomb was sealed. The day grief hung in the air, and heaven felt silent. I remember the day after my mom unexpectedly passed away. It snowed 15 inches, and we couldn’t drive anywhere. I had to stay put. I felt God calling me to be still and sit with my grief.

Good Friday teaches me that silence isn’t absence. Sometimes, the most faithful thing we can do is keep showing up and know he is there.

“The assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1

Good Friday is not the end of the story.

It amazes me that Jesus knew what he had to do in enduring the extreme pain of crucifixion, and yet he faithfully showed us his love. The cross was brutal, but it wasn’t final. And that changes everything.

It reminds me that even when I can’t see the way forward, hope is still moving. That the worst things are never the last things. That even death can’t cancel God’s promises.

We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. And hope does not put us to shame. Romans 5:3–5

Why I Still Honor Good Friday

It reminds me of the God I believe in. One who doesn’t run from pain. One who sits with us in suffering. One who transforms even death into life.

Hope doesn’t ignore the cross. It grows out of it.

And because of Good Friday, I know that even on my darkest days, God is with me and will see me through them.

May you feel the hope and boundless love our savior freely gave to us.