What's Good about "Good Friday?"

I just spent an hour with some students discussing why Good Friday is considered good by Christians. To make the discussion more interesting, I asked them to try to imagine that they had to answer the question without knowing about what happened on Easter Sunday. It turned out to be a real stumper. One student discussed the atonement, and I reminded him that the atonement was a doctrine that evolved in hindsight, and would not have been on the minds of Jesus' followers on that Friday. Seeing that the good folks were really trying to get this, I asked them to think about other events during what we now call Holy Week, and also other events that they could think of where Jesus was making points about the kind of faith he was proclaiming. Finally, one of them said, "because, in his death, he was living up to what he had always taught about sacrifice." Bingo!
For me, Good Friday became more meaningful when I ceased to be fascinated with the details of the day. After all, none of the gospel writers agree on every detail, so trying to come up with the "ultimate chronology" proves to be a less-than-satisfying endeavor. Looking at Good Friday for what the day has to say without looking to Sunday can be a tricky, but very rewarding adventure.
I grew up in a town that used to have a three-hour Good Friday service that was sponsored by the local ministerial association. The services were broken into half-hour segments, and different clergy would preach during each segment. Folks could come and go between segments. As luck, and God's sense of humor, would have it, my first parish after graduation from divinity school was located four miles from my hometown. So, I became a member of the very same ministerial association that had sponsored those services during my youth, and they were still doing them. During my second year in that parish, I was scheduled to preach at one of the segments of the three-hour service. The pastor who preached during the segment before mine told people to lose the long faces, that Good Friday did not matter because Easter Sunday was to follow. Then I followed him and called attention back to the day at hand. I remember playing to a tough room that day.
We prefer happy endings to our stories, even the stories of our faith. But I am an advocate of not moving ahead too quickly with the events of Holy Week. If we are too squeamish to even contemplate the agony of the cross before skipping ahead to the joy of Easter morning, how can we identify with the sacrificial nature of the faith to which we are called by God? What does a faith that has no room for dealing with tragedy, sadness and injustice have to do with us? On Good Friday, God made it clear to the world that God was not above knowing the pain of loss. I would much rather serve a God who can identify with my station in life than one who is only about the triumphal side of faith. Easter Sunday has little meaning apart from the events of Good Friday. We will do well to remember that.