Today is "Good Friday."

It's also known as "Great Friday" or "Black Friday" in some traditions.

Today is the day Jesus was convicted, crucified and buried.

After the seder supper with his disciples, Jesus and his disciples retired to the solace of a garden named Gethsemane to pray. However, it wasn't too long before his disciples were snoozing, but it wasn't a long siesta. The hour had come (Matthew 26:45).

And it all started with a kiss.

The kiss of a traitor. A kiss was a traditional ancient greeting in Jesus' day. Judas used his kiss to signal to the officials who to arrest. Everything was done quickly.

Mark recorded: "then everyone deserted [Jesus] and fled (Mark 14:50)."

The rest of Thursday night is a blur of illegal trials before the high priest Caiaphas, Sanhedrin, Herod Antipas and Pontius Pilate.

It was unlawful to hold a trial at night but these Jewish leaders did so anyway. The Jews had no power to carry out a death sentence, but it was Passover. Three million Jews in town. They knew the last thing that governor Pilate needed was a revolt.

It's why Pilate sent Jesus to Herod Antipas (a Jew). Jesus was a Jewish (not Roman) problem. Only Luke recorded the meeting with Herod (Luke 23:7-11)--who was as crazy as his dad Herod the Great. His father tried to kill Jesus the child. Now Herod's boy had the opportunity to kill Jesus the man.

In the end Herod only mocked and scourged Jesus...and sent him back to Pilate.

As Friday dawned, Pilate questioned Jesus again but got little from it. The Jewish Passover included a tradition to commute a death sentence. Pilate offered to exonerate Barabbas (a notorious revolutionary and notable murderer) or release Jesus the Christ.

The crowd chose Barabbas. Did you catch it?

The Passover crowd chose to sacrifice an innocent man in the place of a condemned murderer.

All week long the blood of innocent lambs had been poured out as a sacrifice to cover sin and guilt. Thousands of gallons of lamb's blood drained from the temple into the Kidron valley, turning a small brook a raging bloody river.

Now the crowd chose the LAST Lamb...the innocent Lamb of God to die (and liberate) one of the worst criminals.

Jesus was nailed to a cross at 9 a.m. (Mark 15:25). Around noon a darkness fell for the next three hours (Luke 23:41). At 3 p.m., it was finished. Literally. That's the time when Caiaphas, the high priest, in a loud voice, announced the end of the Passover sacrifices.

"IT IS FINISHED! (John 19:30).

The last lamb had been killed in the temple. Passover was over.

Indeed, it was over. Forever. Just outside Jerusalem, Jesus, the Lamb of God, was dead.

At that moment, a huge earthquake occurred, the temple veil--a foot thick--was torn in two (top to bottom) and the graves released a number of Jerusalem's righteous dead. It's a creepy but critical detail.

Jesus was dead, but new life was on the bloom.

Good Friday isn't just good, my friends, it's GREAT. It's the day God passed over his people and commuted our sentence. It's the day when the Blood of the Lamb was applied to the doorframe of all who believe. It's day a Lamb died and gave mankind a new hope: a SUNDAY resurrection.

Aren't you glad? I sure am.

It's a very GOOD FRIDAY to be ALIVE. Do you believe it?