Before He Rose: Holy Saturday

The Lord is in His holy temple.
Let all the earth be silent before Him.
Habakkuk 2:20

With a sigh and an earthquake, Jesus took His last breath. Slowly the Friday crowd that had gathered to witness His execution dispersed, taking with them insults, casual and unconcerned conversation and weeping. Silence enveloped the hill as soldiers removed Jesus' pierced body from the cross. The Sabbath was upon Jerusalem and preparations needed to be made.

At sundown the plot of Caiaphas the priest and his followers to kill Jesus was finished. They closed their economy of murder and betrayal with a final purchase, a field for peasant graves, using the blood money that paid for Judas's kiss. He had returned it to them in shame. Joseph the Pharisee prepared Jesus' body for burial and laid Him to rest, asleep in a tomb, and Judas the Betrayer rested from his conscience, hanging from a noose tied to a tree limb. The next day all would be still throughout the city in observance of God's command to cease labor.

Just as Jesus once rested in the stern of a boat through a raging storm, so He now rested as storms raged within His disciples. Fear kept them from attending meetings at the temple. The rest of the city would be there and so would the Pharisees, their watchful eyes still burning with murder. Instead the disciples hid in their disgrace. Having abandoned their friend and Lord, they had left Him to die alone.

Only a day after Jesus' death, intense fear, doubt and unquenchable grief circled through the disciples' minds. Memories of their lives with Jesus played there too: how it felt to stand upon a rolling sea; to feed thousands with a few loaves of bread; to see Lazarus' burial clothes in a heap in the dirt as he walked, ate and laughed with them. No doubt their hearts grew sick as they contemplated these things in the mournful repose of a tainted Sabbath.

Trusting Jesus lost viability with each passing question and doubt. These men who had left everything to follow Jesus were now left without purpose or a road to follow. Their association with Jesus, and the education they received from Him, others would now consider worthless and incriminating. Without the power of the living Christ, a life of ministry was no longer a possibility, let alone the kingdom they expected to rule with Jesus. Perhaps their minds turned homeward to their pasts. How would they face family, former careers and the ridicule of their communities? They couldn't hide forever. Something would have to be done.

At times in our lives, God may seem silent for a while, and we may suffer for his name. But ultimately Jesus will never leave us. Unlike the disciples, we'll never experience the darkness of Jesus crucified and buried. We know how the story ends: the tomb is empty. Jesus Christ is alive and well.

Yet, in spite of this, we feel at times that Jesus has forgotten us or isn't who we thought He was. Like the disciples, we quickly turn to doubt and denial. Once we remove faith, our ability to comprehend the work of God is limited to only what we can see, hear, touch or taste. We are like Thomas, unsatisfied until we can feel the jagged flesh of Jesus' wounds.

Luckily, for the disciples and us, feelings don't always match reality. That's what makes "treasuring" God's word in our hearts so important. It's a lifestyle of abiding in God's Word by reading and meditating on it daily. When life gets difficult, the Bible rightfully interprets our emotions and reveals the truth and error within them. It helps us remember God's promises and walk in faith through dark and difficult times.

Eugene Peterson, a theologian and pastor, says in his book Living the Resurrection, that the "do-it-yourself, self-help culture of North America has so thoroughly permeated our imaginations that we ordinarily don't give attention to the biggest thing of all--resurrection. And the reason we don't is because resurrection is not something we can use or control or manipulate or improve on--resurrection is not available for our use. It's exclusively God's operation."

The feebleness of the disciples' faith should come as little surprise to us because, if we're honest, we see it in ourselves. The "Little of Faith," as Jesus often called them, failed to believe or remember the things Jesus said of Himself--that He would lay down His life and take it up again after three days. Had the disciples faithfully held these things in their hearts about this Man who had proven His identity and power many times over, that Saturday might have held the promise of hope, a seed of expectancy, wonder and joy at the coming Redemption.

How often do we forget or deny the promises of God in the face of grief, fear, uncertainty or doubt? Do we turn to a "do-it-yourself" Christianity to fix our problems? Too often we look no further than our two hands and feet to make things right, when what we need is the wonder-working power of Christ's resurrection and a posture of humility as we wait for His manifest presence in our lives.

The morning after the Sabbath, Jesus' disciples were startled by a knock on the door. It was the women who had met an angel at Jesus' empty tomb and later worshiped at the feet of their Risen Savior. Soon He would reveal himself to the disciples. And though they waded through what John of the Cross called a "dark night of the soul," the dawn of morning brought with it the promise of new life in Jesus Christ. If you and I are willing to wait through the night, we can rest in knowing that morning will surely come.

~ Dr. Charles Stanley