What is Good Friday? And What Does it Mean to Christians?

What is Good Friday? In this article, Erin Odom digs into the significance of Good Friday, Scripture and prayers for Good Friday, how different Christians celebrate this sacred day, and more!

Good Friday is one of the most sacred Christian holidays, yet it’s one that many believers overlook.

If I’m being honest, my favorite part about Good Friday when I was a child was that we didn’t have school. I attended a Christian school, and for many years, Good Friday signaled the beginning of spring break. While I knew that the purpose of Good Friday was to remember Jesus’s death on the cross, it wasn’t a day that I especially revered during my youth.

That all changed in my teen years and into my present adulthood as well.

As I deepened my personal relationship with Jesus, Good Friday took on a new meaning. The holiday became a sacred and solemn day for me, as I realized the ultimate sacrifice Jesus made for each of us–a sacrifice that is absolutely paramount to my Christian faith.

More than just a prelude to Easter, Good Friday is a blessed day in its own right, one that can draw us closer to God if we choose to slow down and observe it.

If you’ve been wondering how to make Good Friday a more significant part of your life, you’ve come to the right place.

In this article, we’re diving deep into history, tradition, and Scripture to answer the following questions:

What Is Good Friday?

Good Friday is a Christian religious holiday that occurs during Holy Week. If you’re unfamiliar, Holy Week is the final week of Lent and a period of spiritual reflection leading up to Easter.

Good Friday, in particular, is when many Christians ponder Jesus’s death. It can be a day of somber conviction for those who practice the faith.

Unlike Christmas, Good Friday is not a national holiday or bank holiday. However, eleven different states have named Good Friday a state holiday, including Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Tennessee, and Texas.

While “Good Friday” is the most recognized name for this day, other names for the holiday include Black Friday, Holy Friday, Great Friday, Great and Holy Friday, and Friday of the Passion of the Lord.

When Is Good Friday 2025?

Good Friday is on Friday, April 18, 2025, this year. Good Friday is always on the Friday before Easter Sunday.

What Happened on Good Friday?

Good Friday is when Jesus died on the cross. Before His crucifixion, He was tried and sentenced to death by Pontius Pilate and severely beaten.

We know that Jesus died on a Friday because the Bible says that Jesus died the day before the Sabbath (Mark 15:42). The Jewish Sabbath day began at sundown on Friday. We also know that Jesus rose on the third day after His crucifixion (Matthew 16:21, Luke 9:22). Sunday is the third day from Friday.

Why Is It Called Good Friday?

Good Friday is called Good Friday because it was on this day that God demonstrated His love through Jesus’s sacrificial death on the cross for our sins. While the day’s events signify the most heartbreaking occurrence in Christian history, the meaning behind Good Friday is indeed good for believers.

The significance of Good Friday is that we would have no Resurrection Sunday without it. The Bible teaches that Jesus’s death on the cross served as the atonement–or payment–for our sins (1 John 2:2).

If Jesus hadn’t died on the cross and rose from the grave, we would not have the opportunity to be reconciled to God (Colossians 1:21-22) and experience the deliverance of our sins. The Bible teaches that our sins separate us from God (Isaiah 59:2).

Jesus’s sinless death on the cross was good because it provided the means for us to know God and, eventually, spend eternity with Him in Heaven. All of this has led Christians throughout the centuries to call the day Jesus died Good Friday.

What Are Some Good Friday Bible Verses?

Good Friday Bible verses are throughout all of Scripture, in the Old and New Testaments. While the most obvious Bible verses about Good Friday come from the four gospels and their depiction of Jesus’s death on the cross, the Old Testament is full of prophecy for this sacred and pivotal event in Christian history.

The apostles also wrote much about Jesus’s death in the New Testament books following the gospels.

Good Friday Bible Verses From the Old Testament

We can find prophecies of Jesus’s suffering and death on Good Friday throughout the Old Testament. The following Bible verses are some of the most beloved prophetic Scriptures read on Good Friday:

Isaiah 53:5: “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.”
Genesis 3:15: “And I will put enmity
    between you and the woman,
    and between your offspring and hers;
He will crush your head,
    and you will strike His heel.”
Psalm 22:1: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from my cries of anguish?”
Psalm 22:16: “Dogs surround me,
a pack of villains encircles me;
they pierce my hands and my feet.”
Psalm 41:9: “Even my close friend,
someone I trusted,
one who shared my bread,
has turned against me.”
Zechariah 11:12-13: “I told them, ‘If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not, keep it.’ So they paid me thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said to me, ‘Throw it to the potter’—the handsome price at which they valued me! So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter at the house of the Lord.”
Zechariah 13:7: “’Awake, sword, against my shepherd,
    against the man who is close to me!’”
    declares the Lord Almighty.
‘Strike the shepherd,
    and the sheep will be scattered,
    and I will turn my hand against the little ones.'”

Good Friday Bible Verses From the Gospels

We can find the accounts of Jesus’s suffering and death on Good Friday in all four gospels (Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23, and John 19), but the following Bible verses from the gospels are also popular Scriptures read on Good Friday:

Matthew 17:22-23: “When they came together in Galilee, he said to them, ‘The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life.” And the disciples were filled with grief.”
John 3:16-17: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.”
Mark 9:31: “because he was teaching his disciples. He said to them, ‘The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise.’
Mark 10:34: “who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise.”
Mark 8:31: “He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.”
Matthew 12:40: “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
Luke 23:54: “It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin.”
John 19:30: “When he had received the drink, Jesus said, ‘It is finished.’ With that, He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.”
Luke 23:34: “Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.’ And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.”
Luke 23:43: “Jesus answered him, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.'”
Matthew 27:46: “About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’ (which means ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’).”
Mark 15:34: “And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?’ (which means ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’).”
Luke 23:46: “Jesus called out with a loud voice, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.’ When he had said this, he breathed his last.”
John 19:30: “When he had received the drink, Jesus said, ‘It is finished.’ With that, He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.”

Good Friday Bible Verses From the Rest of the New Testament

Beyond the gospel accounts of Jesus’s suffering and death on Good Friday, the rest of the New Testament is full of the apostles’ re-emphasis on the events from Good Friday.

The following Bible verses are some of the most common New Testament Scriptures read on this sacred day:

1 Peter 2:24: “’He himself bore our sins’ in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; ‘by his wounds you have been healed.'”
Romans 5:6-10: “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!”
1 Corinthians 1:18: “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
1 Peter 3:18: “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.”

What Is a Good Friday Prayer?

Different Christian denominations have their own traditional prayers for Good Friday. While evangelical churches typically do not follow a set liturgy, denominations with more formal worship practices incorporate time-honored prayers that unite congregants in worship each year.

The Book of Common Prayer, used for centuries by Christians from a variety of denominations, including Anglicans, Episcopalians, and Methodists, lists several prayers for Good Friday. These beautiful prayers all center around remembering Christ’s suffering on Good Friday.

The following is an example of a Good Friday Prayer from the Book of Common Prayer:

Almighty God, we pray you graciously to behold this your
family, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be
betrayed, and given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer
death upon the cross; who now lives and reigns with you and
the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

What Are Some Popular Good Friday Quotes?

Christians enjoy sharing many popular Good Friday quotes via social media memes on this sacred day. My favorite Good Friday quote is: “It’s only Friday…but Sunday’s coming!”

I love this quote because it shows the somberness of Friday but the eager expectation of the joyful and victorious Resurrection Sunday to come. This quote came from a sermon excerpt from Tony Campollo. You can read the rest of this powerful Good Friday quote here.

Some other popular Good Friday quotes include the following:

“Unless there is a Good Friday in your life, there can be no Easter Sunday.” –Fulton J. Sheen

“It was inevitable that Jesus Christ should be crucified. It was also inevitable that He should rise again.” –H. R. L. Sheppard

“Easter is a time when God turned the inevitability of death into the invincibility of life.” –Craig D. Lounsbrough

“To the casual observer there was nothing unusual about these six hours. To the casual observer this Friday was a normal Friday. Six hours of routine. Six hours of the expected. Six hours. One Friday. Enough time for
a shepherd to examine his flocks,
a housewife to clean and organize her house,
a physician to receive a baby from a mother’s womb
and cool the fever of one near death. Six hours. From 9:00 am to 3:00 PM. Six hours. One Friday. Six hours filled with, as are all hours, the mystery of life.” –Max Lucado

“What is good about Good Friday? Why isn’t it called Bad Friday? Because out of the appallingly bad came what was inexpressibly good. And the good trumps the bad, because though the bad was temporary, the good is eternal.” –Randy Alcorn

Good Friday Fasting: Can Christians Eat on Good Friday?

Catholics cannot eat meat on Good Friday, as Good Friday is considered a day of fasting and abstinence for Catholic Christians. Catholics age 14 and up are expected to refrain from eating meat on this sacred day, while Catholics ages 18 through 59 are required to fast from other foods as well–eating one full meal and two smaller meals that don’t add up to a full meal on this day.

(There are medical exceptions to these Catholic fasting rules for those who are pregnant, breastfeeding, or have a medical condition that requires eating.)

This Lenten Eating Guide is helpful for Catholics who need a refresher on what they can eat on Good Friday. These Easy Lent Recipes may come in handy as well!

Christians from Protestant denominations are permitted to eat on Good Friday, but many choose to fast on this day anyway, especially if they’ve chosen fasting from meat or from another food as part of their Lenten observations.

What Are Ways Christians Observe Good Friday?

Good Friday is not a holy day of obligation for Catholics. Ash Wednesday and Holy Thursday aren’t holy days of obligation either. This means attending Mass on Good Friday is not mandatory—but always encouraged!

Protestant churches and individual believers span the gamut from not observing Good Friday at all to participating in special church services on the evening of Good Friday. Some evangelicals don’t place a special emphasis on this day, choosing to focus on the resurrection and Easter Sunday.

Since most people are not off of work (or even school) on Good Friday, observations for the holiday typically occur in the evening. Some Christian families spend the evening in quiet reflection with family devotionals, prayers, or even time spent watching religious movies depicting Jesus’s sacrificial death on the cross, like The Passion of the Christ.

Whether you grew up observing Good Friday or will take time to worship on this Christian holiday for the first time this year, I hope you will experience Jesus in a whole new way as you reflect on His sacrificial death for our sins.

Did you grow up observing Good Friday in your home and church? What are some of your favorite ways to observe this religious holiday?