Empty. Lonely. Hopeless. I can only imagine how the day after Jesus' crucifixion felt to His followers. The men and women who had walked with Him, talked with Him, listened to Him, and loved Him were left without Him. Their hopes and dreams of a messiah had been nailed to the cross and laid in a tomb, sealed with a stone as heavy as the weight upon their hearts. The Gospel accounts give us little insight into this Saturday. Of the four, the book of Luke explains that the women who had come with him from Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how his body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and ointments. On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment (Luke 23: 55-56). You don't prepare ointments and spices for the living but for the dead. So all we know is that they rested and waited on that day, but clearly they believed it was over. Oh what a mournful and painful Saturday it must have been.
We too face our Saturdays, those moments when our hopes are crushed and dreams are shattered. A job is lost, a loved one dies, a diagnosis is given, a relationship is broken. In a fallen world, the list goes on and on. What we knew and hoped in is pulled out from under us, and we are left trying to discern left from right, up from down. We wait in it; we hurt in it. We begin to prepare our ointments and spices to try to move forward, to do something in our pain. And yet we often must be patient in the hurt and brokenness, enduring the suffering.
Friday was crushing. Oh how bleak Saturday must have been. Yet take heart for Sunday arrived, and oh how it came!
On the third day, the stone was rolled away. Jesus, the Son of God who had taken our sins upon his shoulders and shamefully hung upon the cross to bear the penalty of our sins, had broken the chains of sin and death forever! When the women went to the tomb, an angel spoke words of great hope to them. Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen (Matthew 28:5).
Are you facing a Saturday when hope feels lost and the grip of pain and waiting seems to creep in tighter and closer? Look back to resurrection Sunday and remember that all is not lost but that hope rose for us eternally, for those who place their faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Jesus said, In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world (John 16:33). Although the circumstances in life may not be as we'd have them, we can place our trust in the One who holds the world in His hands and Who knows and loves us intimately. In Him is life and joy and peace. He came to give us life and to have it abundantly (John 10:10).
Sunday is coming! We praise you King Jesus. Where we falter and lose hope, we look forward with eager expectation. Our hope is in You, the overcomer of every Friday and Saturday brokenness, the one who has overcome the world!
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