Black Friday

This Friday is called Black Friday.  No doubt you have been receiving all kinds of advertisements from the retail sector calling us all to participate in their sales.  In the United States, and increasingly in Canada, Black Friday is the biggest shopping day of the year.  I had the unfortunate opportunity to be in the United States on Black Friday a few years ago, and I made the mistake to go to a store to buy a part for my computer.  The store shelves were empty and the aisles were crowded with people looking for a good deal. I couldn’t find the part that I needed.  

If the Internet is correct, the Friday after American Thanksgiving first received the name, “Black Friday” in Philadelphia.  The Philadelphia Police Department had to deal with massive traffic jams, over-crowded sidewalks, and, with them, increased crime on the Friday following Thanksgiving as people searched for deals to begin their Christmas shopping.  It was the police who coined the name “Black Friday,” and it was not meant to be a positive title.  They didn’t like the day because of the problems the crowds caused for them.

Businesses have adopted the name and given it a positive spin because, as some of them say, it is the day when their business goes from the red into the black, meaning that the sales on Black Friday make their businesses profitable.  It might be appropriate for consumers to call it “Red Friday” because this is the day when many begin racking up credit card debt which must be paid off in the months following Christmas.

I suspect that Black Friday is not a lot of fun for many people.  Those who work in retail can’t really enjoy the long hours and frenzied pace.  Shoppers, although they may find a deal or two, will also be disappointed as that special toy they wanted to buy their child is already sold out, and they just wasted hours in line to get into the store.  And it must be rather nerve-racking for retailers who must do well on this one day in the year if they want to be profitable.  I don’t think anyone will be tempted to change the name “Black Friday” to “Good Friday.”

But there is a Friday which has been named “Good Friday.”  It might have better been called “Black Friday,” considering what happened on that day.  Three people, accused of criminal activities (only two were guilty) were tortured to death on the outskirts of a small city in the Mideast.  They were each nailed to a cross, a horribly barbaric method of execution adopted by the Roman government two thousand years ago to punish those who had been accused of crimes against the Roman Empire.  One of those people who endured an agonizing death was the one we know as Jesus the Christ.  Of the three, he had committed no crime although he had been falsely accused of making himself equal to God.  The courts did not give him a fair trial, and he was sentenced quickly because powerful people who hated him wanted him dead.  Rather than endure disruption in the city, the courts sentenced him more to please the powerful people who wanted him dead than to ensure justice.  This one man who died on that Friday didn’t deserve to die but was horribly killed anyway.

That was truly a “Black Friday.”  Any time we have injustice and torture we, rightfully, ought to be horrified.  Yet, we have come to call this Friday “good.”  It was a good Friday because the death of that one man who died unjustly was enough to pay the debt that we owe God.  Some might go into debt because of their poor spending choices on Black Friday, but we all are indebted to God because we have caused destruction to the world he gave to us as our home, we have harmed others by our callous behaviour, we have turned away from the One who loves us.  We owe God, for we have placed ourselves in his debt by our bad behaviour.  Jesus’ death on the cross, although unjust for him, was sufficient to pay our debts to God.  We acquire that debt relief simply by putting our trust in him. 

And that is why a truly black Friday can be renamed “Good Friday.”  What happened two thousand years ago was truly horrible, but the results of the events of that day are good for us.  Because of Good Friday, we can experience hope as our debts to God are forgiven. 

Good Friday is not a great day for retailers, and shoppers don’t flock to the stores for good deals.  But it is good because what we receive on that day puts us “in the black” with God, for when we believe that what Jesus did on the cross was sufficient for us, all our wrongs are forgiven and forgotten and we owe God nothing because Jesus paid it all.

Pastor Gary