Today is Holy Saturday, a day of anticipation for the celebration of Jesus' resurrection. However this morning I am meditating on the first occurrence of this day, the day when it really happened. Jesus died on Friday around 3pm (the ninth hour) and was buried later that day. Here are the verses describing his burial from Matthew 27:57-61 NIV:
[57] "As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus. [58] Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus' body, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him. [59] Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, [60] and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away. [61] Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb."
Those are the last verses of chapter 27, and verse one of chapter 28 starts with the first hours following the sabbath. We find the same thing in all four Gospels, no real mention of the day after Jesus death (Saturday or the Sabbath). I have spent quite some time thinking about those days and years in Jesus' life where there is no Gospel commentary, and I think it is important for us to at least go there in our thoughts, for these days (and Holy Saturday especially) represent those days when God is silent.
I find the silence of God quite unsettling, and I am sure the Apostles and disciples were greatly troubled that Sabbath. All their ideas, thoughts, hopes and dreams about what the Lord was going to do appeared to have died when Jesus died on the cross. They knew He was the Son of God, or at least the Apostles did, and yet He died. They truly had not grasped what Jesus had been trying to tell them, that He had to suffer and die. We are told over and over again in the Gospels that the disciples did not understand what Jesus meant when He was talking about his coming death. I believe that is a indication of what they were dealing with that Saturday, as remembered by them when they wrote the Gospels. I believe they were experiencing complete and utter despair, complete confusion, grief, fear, failure, and even betrayal. If they gathered for the sabbath, which it appears they did for they were all together the following day, then it was likely a very quiet gathering, each caught up in their own thoughts and sorrow.
I wonder if they went through the motions of celebrating the sabbath? The Sabbath was a day of sacred assembly, considered holy to the Lord. They were not to do any work, cook or even light a fire in their homes. They were to be reminded that the Lord created the world in six days and on the seventh day rested. They were to turn their eyes and hearts to God. Instead, I can just imagine them gathered together and feeling like everything they believed was now in question. Jesus had come proclaiming the arrival of the Kingdom of God, demonstrated the reality of that Kingdom by healing the sick and diseased, raising dead people, cleansing lepers, healing the blind and deaf and casting out demons. They had been convinced by all these signs that He was the Son of God, the Messiah, and their paradigm and thoughts of the time of the Messiah didn't have any room for Him dying and leaving them alone. Yet He was dead.
It is amazing how much changed in just a few short days. They had witnessed Jesus' triumphant arrival in Jerusalem, riding on a donkey, people shouting, "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!" (Luke 19:38). Less than a week later, Jesus was dead, and they "were together, with doors locked for fear of the Jews." (John 20:19). They were afraid that the same thing might happen to them as happened to Jesus. One of their own had betrayed Jesus, Peter had denied Jesus, they had almost all abandoned Jesus when He was crucified. It was not a happy or joyful group of people. All of their hopes appeared dead, laying in the tomb. All of the personal sacrifices they had made to follow Him were probably now running through their minds. They were likely thinking that they hadn't signed up for this, and wondering how they could go back!
I think at times we can just gloss over these events and days, because we know Easter is coming, we know that Jesus rose from the dead the very next morning. It is great to read stories when you know the ending, not nearly as much fun to live through the midst of the story without the benefit of knowing how it will turn out. I think if we are honest with ourselves, none of us ever wants to go through these types of times, and we don't like to be around people who are going through them, for they are painful to behold and experience. We don't like pain, and yet we all deal with it. It is so much easier to just ignore the pain in other peoples lives, than to wade in and be there with them in their pain. Personally, we tend to try to escape our pain, either trying to deaden it, run away from it, or stuff it so far down in our hearts that is doesn't show up for months or sometimes years.
The point, in going here in our minds, is that Easter (and by Easter I mean the victory of the Lord over sin and death, and the opening of the way to the Father) really does occur, in our own lives as well as it did that first Easter. No matter where we find ourselves, or what sorrow we are dealing with, Easter will occur. Jesus is alive and will show Himself strong. He has vanquished the enemy and will destroy his works in our lives. It is when God is quiet that all Heaven is about ready to break loose. God will not abandon us, forsake us, betray our trust or leave us. He will come. He will rescue us. He will pour out His Holy Spirit. He will break the chains that bind us. He will walk right into the rooms where we are hiding with the doors locked. He will breath on us. He has a better plan than we can ever imagine. We have likely greatly underestimated His ability to do good in our lives.
So let us be encouraged when God is silent, because He is coming, and He has something great planned. Let us not give into despair, but rather put our hope in the one who has paid the ultimate price for our lives. Let us be with our friends and family who are in pain and sorrow, whose hopes and dreams and lives appear destroyed and dead. Let us console them with this truth - Easter is coming. Let us wait for Easter morning together.
Amen!
No comments:
Post a Comment