THE EASTER TRILOGY: From Palms to Pain / The Story of Good Friday // Holy Week Conversations

When the palm branches of celebration give way to the cross of suffering, what happens to our faith? Good Friday confronts us with the most challenging spiritual question: Do we still believe in Jesus when things don't go as expected?

The contrast is stark. Just days after the crowds shouted "Hosanna!" Jesus was betrayed, beaten, and crucified. For His disciples who had witnessed his miracles and power, this devastating turn of events must have shaken their faith to the core. Their teacher and friend was suffering before their eyes, and everything they believed about Him seemed to be unraveling.

We face similar faith challenges today. Life often resembles railroad tracks with good and bad running side by side—answered prayers alongside ongoing struggles, miracles in one area while still waiting in another. The question becomes whether our faith can be like those railroad ties, connecting these parallel experiences without becoming a spiritual train wreck when difficulty arrives.

Jesus prepared His followers for this very test. The night before his crucifixion, he told them, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me" (John 14:1). He knew what was coming and offered them—and us—a way through: choose to keep believing, even when understanding fails.

What makes Good Friday truly "good" is that suffering wasn't the end of the story. John, who witnessed these events firsthand, later wrote that he testified "so that you also may believe." His message echoes through centuries to remind us that our pain, like Christ's, is never the final chapter.

Join us as we explore how to maintain faith through life's darkest moments, knowing that Easter Sunday is coming. When we can say "Yes, I believe" even in our Good Fridays, we discover a faith that transcends circumstances—and a powerful testimony to share with the next generation.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to the Family Disciple Me podcast.
We're in the middle of ourEaster trilogy, a three-part
journey through conversationswhere we walk through Palm
Sunday, Good Friday and EasterSunday, the biggest moments of
the Holy Week.
That's right, Tasha.
And last time when we had aconversation, we talked about

(00:23):
Palm Sunday.
That was the day that thecrowds cheered for Jesus.
They were waving palm branchesand shouting Hosanna.
It was the day of celebrationand belief.
But today, Tasha, we're lookingat what happened just a few days
later, on Good Friday, a day ofsadness and suffering, yes, a

(00:45):
day of the hardest question ofall.
And that question is do youstill believe in Jesus, even
when things don't go the way youexpected?
That's a powerful question thathits the very core of our lives
and hearts.
Yes, it does, Wendy, and it's aquestion that Jesus actually

(01:06):
spoke about before Good Fridayeven happened, In John 14, verse
1, yes, Jesus in this verse,told his disciples do not let
your hearts be troubled.
You believe in God, Believealso in me.
That's what we're going to talkabout today, because it's one
thing to believe in Jesus well,when things are good, right but

(01:29):
what about when things are hard?
This is the story of GoodFriday.
Everything was joyouscelebration on Palm Sunday, but
just a handful of days latercame the darkest day in history.
So let's spend a few moments inconversation about that.
Let's roll the podcast introand then we'll dive into what

(01:58):
happened just before and on GoodFriday, Because again it sets
the stage for everything.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
Welcome to the Family Disciple Me podcast.
If you have a real relationshipwith Jesus, then you're in the
right place to be encouraged,challenged and blessed as you
seek Him, speak Him.
The mission of the FamilyDisciple Me ministry is to
inspire devotion-drivendiscipleship, which is something
we believe every Christfollower can do.

(02:26):
Discipleship starts with aconversation, so let's get going
with that right now.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
You know, we don't usually expect good things to
come out of bad situations whensomething hard happens.
I don't know about you, but forme it's easy to wonder where's
God in this.
That's what makes Good Fridayso incredible.
It was the worst day in theworld.
Jesus was betrayed, he wasarrested, beaten, he was put on

(02:57):
that cross.
But somehow that terrible daybecame the best day for those
who believe in him.
Day became the best day forthose who believe in him.
That's because, with Jesus,sorrow and suffering they're
never the end of the story.
When we say to Jesus, yes, Ibelieve, then even in the
hardest times, we are able totrust that God is still at work.

(03:22):
Tasha, that's exactly whatJesus was preparing his
disciples for.
On the night before Good Friday, at the Last Supper, he looked
at them and said the wordsquoted in John 14.1.
Yes, we said these words in theintroduction, but let's just
repeat them again becausethey're our theme verse for this
conversation.

(03:42):
Jesus looked at his disciplesand said do not let your hearts
be troubled.
You believe in God, believealso in me.
But why would Jesus say this?
I mean he knew that in just afew hours, everything was about
to go terribly wrong.
His disciples would see himarrested, tried, crucified yes,

(04:07):
but instead of fear, he wascalling them to faith.
He knew the cross was comingand he was preparing his
followers for how to respond.
Yes, he was teaching them howto keep believing in him no
matter what.
You know, when life is easy,when things turn out the way we

(04:29):
want, when we get the miracle weneed, it's not that hard to say
I believe in Jesus.
But on Good Friday, thedisciples had to wrestle with
their faith in a whole new way.
Jesus had been their teacher.
He'd been their leader, theirfriend.
They had seen him do miracles,walk on water, raise the dead,

(04:53):
but now, suddenly, he was takenaway from them.
Everything good was in jeopardy.
Yes, can you imagine howconfusing this must have been?
If Jesus was the Son of God,how could this be happening?
Was he really who he said hewas?
Could he still do what he saidhe could do?
I believe that these are some ofthe same questions we have to

(05:16):
ask ourselves today, becauselife let's be real it isn't
always like Palm Sunday, full ofcelebrations and joy.
Well, sometimes I find it and Iknow you, tasha, find it the
same way.
Our lives are more like GoodFriday hard, painful and
confusing For sure.
But the question is do we stillbelieve in Jesus, even when

(05:42):
things about our lives don'tmake sense?
I feel like I'm always seemingto wrestle with that same
question quite a bit in everydaylife Me too, wendy.
You know, in the last episode Iwas telling you about my yes, I
believe moment with Jesus.
In that circumstance he did abona fide, certified miracle.

(06:05):
It was crazy, amazing.
It was a miracle witnessed byscores of people and something
that's talked about to this day.
But simultaneously in my lifethere was another situation that
was, in its own way, asdesperately difficult and
devastating as the first, maybeeven more so.

(06:26):
And yet, even though I prayedabout those two things equally
and simultaneously, and maybeeven more for the second
situation, I still haven't seenthe miracle, wendy.
I'm still waiting for God toshow up and show off in that
situation.
Isn't that the truth for all ofus?
Tasha, I really believe that inall of our lives we have good

(06:49):
things and we also have badthings that happen.
You know, once I heard someonesay that life is like railroad
tracks, with the good and thebad running side by side.
I live next to train tracks.
So I guess I would extend thatanalogy and say the question is
whether or not our faith can belike well, the railroad ties,

(07:14):
staying strong and connectingthe good and the bad, so that
our lives can keep headed towardJesus in all situations instead
of falling apart and well beinglike a spiritual train wreck.
You know, tasha, visiting yourhouse this is a very vivid
analogy.
I can picture exactly whatyou're talking about.

(07:37):
I personally kind of think abouthow did the disciples respond
on Good Friday?
It makes me wonder, like howwould I have responded in that
same situation?
I know that these events wouldhave troubled me.
I just can't even fathom whatthat would feel like and I just
wonder if my faith in Jesuswould have been changed if I

(07:58):
would have been like a trainwreck, depending on whether or
not life was good or bad.
I love that Jesus didn't justtell his disciples what was
going to happen, but he alsotold them how to get through it,
and I believe he does that samething with us he does.
He gave his disciples and us achoice Let not your hearts be

(08:22):
troubled, believe in me.
Well, I believe that that's notjust a promise for eternity, I
believe that that's a promisefor today.
Yes, I believe that that's notjust a promise for eternity.

Speaker 2 (08:30):
I believe that that's a promise for today.

Speaker 1 (08:31):
Yes for us.
When we go through pain andsuffering and uncertainty which
we all do, right, every singleone of us has these in our lives
we all have the same choice asthe disciples did choice as the

(08:53):
disciples did.
Will we trust in Jesus evenwhen we don't understand and
let's be real, I mean, there areso many things that we just
can't control in our life but wecan choose to believe in Jesus,
just like the disciples had todecide whether they believed on
Good Friday.
And one of the most amazingthings about Good Friday is that
it wasn't the end of the story.

(09:15):
That's right, tasha, it wasn'tthe end of the story.
And one of Jesus's disciples,john well, he made sure that we
knew about it.
He was there that day and laterhe wrote these words In John,
chapter 19, verse 35,.
He wrote he who saw this hastestified to you so that you

(09:38):
also may believe John, who wasthere at that time.
He saw everything with his owneyes.
He saw the cross, he saw thesuffering.
He even saw all of the sorrowthat was happening upon that
cross.
But he didn't keep it tohimself.
He told others so that theycould believe too.

(09:59):
That's what we're called to doas well.
Our faith was never meant to beprivate.
When we say yes, I believe it'snot just for us.
It's a message that we havethis amazing privilege to pass
on to others and to let themhear as well.
And that's why Good Fridaymatters, because praising Jesus

(10:20):
on the good days is wonderful,but it's even more powerful when
we hold onto him on the harddays, and I really believe this
is something that is soimportant for us to articulate
to the next generation.
They're watching how we respondto the Lord during the good
times and during the bad times.

(10:42):
When we talk about seek him,speak him in Family, disciple Me
.
Well, we're talking aboutleaning into Jesus in our
devotions, in our hearts and inour own lives, and then, through
discipleship and conversation,we're talking to our kids and
all the people that God hasentrusted to us about what we
believe and why we believe it.

(11:03):
We get to lead by example inthis Wendy, and we have the
promises in scripture that Godworks everything together for
the good of those who love him.
We can't forget that promisealong the way, absolutely so.
Good Friday was the perfect casein point for all of this.
Good Friday was a day of sorrow, but it was also a day of hope,

(11:28):
because Jesus' suffering wasn'tthe end of the story.
Suffering isn't the end of ourstories either.
I don't know about you, tasha,but I am so thankful that the
story isn't over.
That's why we can hold on tofaith, even in the hard times,
because Sunday well, sunday,it's coming.
It is coming, and, well, that'sexactly what we're going to

(11:51):
talk about in the next episode.
So we invite you to join us inthat final episode of our Easter
Trilogy where we celebrateEaster Sunday, the day Jesus
rose from the dead.
Until then, friends, let's seekhim, speak him and make the
most of every conversation.

(12:12):
Lord, god, you see us.
You see Wendy and I here in thepodcast studio right now, and
you see our listeners whereverthey are.
God, you see each of us and yousee the good and the bad that's
running alongsidesimultaneously in each of our
lives.
God, we want our faith to be assolid and strong as those

(12:38):
railroad ties across the wayfrom my house.
God, we want to keep our livesheaded toward you.
We don't want our faith to be atrain wreck when life gets hard
.
We don't want our faith to be atrain wreck when life gets hard
.
We want to stay focused on youand be able to say, yes, I
believe in Jesus, no matter what.

(12:58):
Give us the faith for that Lord.
Help our unbelief.
Thank you for going throughGood Friday for us In your name,
jesus, amen.
Amen.

Speaker 2 (13:20):
Until next time.
God bless you.
We'll see you again as we talkabout Easter Sunday show notes.
To get the latest updates aboutthe Family Disciple Me ministry
, as well as word about oursoon-to-be-released app, sign up
to be the first to know atfamilydisciplemeorg.
Also, if you enjoyed thispodcast, help us get the word

(13:41):
out by leaving us a review onyour favorite podcast platform.
God bless you, friend.
Now go seek him.
Speak him.