Friday often feels like freedom. Freedom from the work week, freedom from a schedule, freedom from obligation, and freedom from what we do to "make a living.”

We can often feel defined by what we do on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and so on. What we do for a living is often the first thing we talk about with strangers. If you work the standard 40 hours in a 5 day work week, you spend half your time on the job. With commutes and overtime, this becomes the majority of our lives. And it can often feel as if we become what we spend our time doing. During the week we may be a valued employee, but by Friday we’re ready to let go of that identity. We’re ready to shed that confining presentation of ourselves in exchange for the freedom of the weekend.

If Friday is freedom, Saturday and Sunday are salvation.

We look to the weekend as the reward. We work day in and day out, so that we can afford ourselves the subtle luxuries of a walk in the park, a dinner with friends, a trip to the museum, a sweet treat, or maybe just uninterrupted time in the apartment. And in these moments, we feel like our truest selves.

We’re not really that person at their desktop all day. We are so much more than the sum of our spreadsheets, and emails, and meetings, and deliverables. On the weekends, we are whoever we want to be.

Saturday and Sunday save us from the fear that we’re not who we want to be, because on the weekend you can do anything and be anyone.

And we’ve earned that right. We worked all week to earn our freedom. It’s bought and paid for.

At least that’s what we tell ourselves. The truth is that the freedom that comes with Friday isn’t about something we’ve done at all. At least not this Friday. This Friday, Good Friday is about the work that Jesus did for us. From Gethsemane to Golgotha. The trials and the suffering, the pain and the perseverance, the vitriol and the violence, the crucifixion that culminated in our collective salvation.

Jesus went through some of the worst imaginable pains one can experience in this life so that we could be spared the pain of death. "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” (1 Corinthians 15:55). Jesus died for our sins, so that we could have eternal life. He did it. We didn’t have to earn it. We didn’t have to clock in. We didn’t have to log hours, attend meetings, or provide deliverables to earn this freedom. Jesus bought and paid for it.

On a Friday like this one, nearly 2000 years ago, Jesus worked harder than any of us ever will to afford us a freedom and salvation that none of us will ever fully grasp. Salvation from sin. Freedom from death.

So yes Friday is about freedom, and the Sabbath is about salvation, but freedom and salvation are far deeper than what we do for a living. It is about what Jesus did so that we may truly live. He died so that our lives, our freedom, our eternal weekend will never come to an end.

Words & Reflection by Tim O’Brien