There is so much talk of
Good Friday and Resurrection (Easter) Sunday, but very few people actually talk
about Saturday and what happened in between the two. I wonder why that is?
Saturday is the pivot point. The day before the single greatest event in
history. The day before death and hell were conquered! It’s the day of
uncertainty and worry and sorrow.
Put yourself in the
Apostle’s shoes for a moment.
You have just seen all your hopes and dreams
shattered by the Roman executioners. Not only that, but you aren't that proud
of yourself, either. For three years, you followed the Master. You personally
witnessed His miracles, from walking on water to feeding multiplied thousands
with a young boy's lunch to healing the sick and raising the dead.
You heard His wisdom; you felt His Power, witnessed His Transfiguration . . . and when the chips were down and it was time to take a stand, you folded up like a Wal Mart lawn chair.
You ran and hid like a coward, not daring to show your face for fear you'd share His fate.
(And you once had the nerve to ask Him if you could sit at His right Hand!)
He faced His enemies alone, without a friend to speak up for Him -- including you, who promised NEVER to forsake Him.
On Good Friday, 1980 years ago, the last thing on any of their minds was writing a detailed record of their own failures. They just wanted to put the entire sordid experience behind them and move on.
He had forsaken everything to teach and prepare them, and when the time came, they not only betrayed Him by deserting Him, they never had a chance to beg His forgiveness afterwards.
You heard His wisdom; you felt His Power, witnessed His Transfiguration . . . and when the chips were down and it was time to take a stand, you folded up like a Wal Mart lawn chair.
You ran and hid like a coward, not daring to show your face for fear you'd share His fate.
(And you once had the nerve to ask Him if you could sit at His right Hand!)
He faced His enemies alone, without a friend to speak up for Him -- including you, who promised NEVER to forsake Him.
On Good Friday, 1980 years ago, the last thing on any of their minds was writing a detailed record of their own failures. They just wanted to put the entire sordid experience behind them and move on.
He had forsaken everything to teach and prepare them, and when the time came, they not only betrayed Him by deserting Him, they never had a chance to beg His forgiveness afterwards.
How would you be feeling
at this point if you were them? Ashamed? Afraid? Numb with grief? Confused?
Here you expected Jesus to rule over all as King. Instead He has been tortured
in a way that the Bible says no man has ever suffered more and then was crucified
and now lay in a sealed and guarded tomb. Your hope is gone. What do you have
to look forward to now?
And what about Mary, the
mother of Jesus? Being the mother of a precious little boy, myself, I can’t
imagine what she went through. Seeing Jesus beaten, tortured, ridiculed, spat
upon and crucified like a common criminal – knowing He was innocent. Did she
replay in her mind as Jesus stumbled under the weight of the cross, the other
times He stumbled in His childhood…and, yet, knowing that this time she was
unable to pick Him up and hold Him in her arms, kiss the boo-boo and assure Him
that everything was going to be ok?
Being a mother, that, to
me, is the most difficult position to try and put myself in. I can’t. Honestly,
I don’t want to. It hurts my heart too much to even try to imagine being in her
place.
BUT…
What we know now, and
what the disciples and Mary didn’t know then, was that Sunday was coming…
Just one day away…
And that would be the
day when EVERYTHING changed!
AMEN!
