If one were to travel back in time to tell most observers of the events on the original Good Friday that the day would be remembered as "good," they would have thought it a sick joke and you a madman. It was wall-to-wall awful.
Judaism of the first centuries was a messiah-rejecting machine. One after another, would-be redeemers of Israel would amass a following, come into conflict with the authorities, and be killed or flee. Those followers that weren't put to the sword would scatter, and it was back to square one. And on this day almost 2,000 years ago, it looked very much like the wheel of history had ground another one under.
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