Fridays Good and Black

“How come Good Friday is called Good Friday and Black Friday is called Black Friday? Shouldn’t they be switched?” I don’t remember who asked that in Sunday school, but it seemed like a good question to me. Good Friday is a solemn day, a day to commemorate Christ’s death, and black is usually the color of mourning, so that made sense. There didn’t seem to be much that was black about a bunch of sales.

The idea behind the name “Black Friday” is that storekeepers used to write profits in black and losses in red. All of the deals after Thanksgiving drove sales up, adding more black to the record books. This isn’t the actual origin of the name, but it’s the modern reasoning. 

As for Good Friday, if you know the significance of Christ’s death on the cross, it really isn’t hard to understand why it’s called “good”. If He’d never died, our sins wouldn’t be forgiven, and we’d need to continue making animal sacrifices forever, or die in our sins. Death is tragic. It was also the greatest sacrifice Christ could’ve possibly made for us. Because of His death, we live and are saved, as long as we believe. I don’t know about you, but I’d call that pretty good!

“But he was pierced for our transgressions,

    he was crushed for our iniquities;

the punishment that brought us peace was on him,

    and by his wounds we are healed.”

Isaiah 53:5

As it turns out, the names aren’t the confusing part. What sometimes is a contradiction is how people treat Black Friday. Let’s back up for a moment to what precedes the big sales: Thanksgiving. This is an entire holiday dedicated to giving thanks and appreciating everything that we have. It’s a holiday of family, feasting, and general goodwill. How on earth do we go from this to elbowing others out of the way to get to the last discounted appliance? One day we’re celebrating everything we have, and the next we’re fighting others at Walmart to get more, more, more. In 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, we read, “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” The thankfulness shouldn’t end on Friday, and it doesn’t have to. Even if you decide to go shopping, and even if there’s something you really want to find, it doesn’t have to be all-consuming. 

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with buying something for yourself on Black Friday, or any other day, for that matter, but it’s important to remember what you have. Even if you don’t have as many physical possessions as you’d ideally want, or you weren’t able to have a nice dinner this year, or even if you don’t have anyone to celebrate with, you can still be thankful. Black Friday might tell you that you always need more, but Good Friday says that you already have all that you need. All you need to do is believe, and Jesus saves your life. This is all the motivation we need to be thankful every day; everything else is just an added blessing.

Sections: Christianity, Confused, Devotional, Fall, Happy, Nonfiction, Thankfulness