What about Saturday?

So, yesterday was Good Friday and tomorrow is Easter Sunday, but today is Saturday. What do you do with that?

Catholic tradition calls it Holy Saturday, the day that Christ’s body lay in the tomb. The Eastern tradition calls today The Great Sabbath because it’s the day that Jesus rested from His finished work on the cross. But both of those focus on God lying in state, if you will. And I have been reflecting on the disciples on that first Saturday.

Scripture is silent about Saturday, but I think it’s easy enough to know what was happening based upon Friday and Sunday. We know that on Sunday the disciples were together and they were not at the tomb. But why weren’t they standing outside that tomb waiting for Jesus to come out? He had told them several times that He would rise on the third day. Yet, they were not there. But they hadn’t scattered; they were together on Easter morning. Think about Friday. John tells us who was at the cross:

Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, "Dear woman, here is your son," and to the disciple, "Here is your mother." From that time on, this disciple took her into his home. John 19:25-27

Where are the disciples? Only John is mentioned being there. Well, think back to when Jesus was arrested and taken before the authorities. Peter followed along, trying not to be noticed. But he was recognized and confronted about being part of the Jesus following. Folks, this was a very real threat. Jesus had been arrested as a traitor. Anyone associated with Him could likewise be executed. That’s why Peter denied Christ three times; he was trying to stay alive. And that’s where all of Christ’s Apostles are until Easter morning, hiding out in fear of death.

Stay with me. Isn’t that where each one of us is following Good Friday? Without the Resurrection of Easter morning, don’t we have a dead savior? If Christ wasn’t raised on Easter, there is no hope. Nothing He said or did, even who He was, is true. And if He is not God, we have no hope.

Look at it another way. Did Jesus die for your sins, receiving the punishment that was rightly due you? I hope you answered “Yes!” But, if He wasn’t raised from the dead, He could not and cannot save you. That’s not a philosophical argument; it’s what Scripture says:

And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. 1 Corinthians 15:17-19

You see, living in Holy Saturday is hopeless. But many a Christian professes a crucified Savior, but misses the power and life of the Resurrection. They are perpetually living the fear and uncertainty of Saturday. So, reflect today on the hopelessness of crucified hope. Reflect on the fear that grips the desperate, hopefully just for this day. For tomorrow brings a new day, a GLORIOUS DAY…

Good(?) Friday

I had thought of lots of things that I could write on this Good Friday, 2012. But I'm not sure that there's anything worth adding to what the Scriptures have already said. So, today, on this Good Friday observance, I will post something for Sean. You see, Sean thinks the Bible was written to support the stories of the disciples, so that they could have power and recognition. But this is an odd story to write. It's not the story I would write. I would not create a weak god. He would not suffer. He would demonstrate power, not servitude.

But my god would whimper before this God. This God was not created by clever tricksters of the first century. This God revealed His coming to men, more than 500 years before He came, weak like an infant. Read Eugene Peterson's translation of Isaiah's prophecy of the death of Jesus. This is not the story that men would write. Therefore, it is infinitely more glorious. Read it and reflect. Easter is coming, full of light and hope and life. But let today be Good Friday. Let it be our darkest day so that His light may shine all the brighter. S

Isaiah 53 - The Message Paraphrase
Who believes what we've heard and seen? Who would have thought God's saving power would look like this?
The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling,
a scrubby plant in a parched field.
There was nothing attractive about him,
nothing to cause us to take a second look.
He was looked down on and passed over,
a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.
One look at him and people turned away.
We looked down on him, thought he was scum.
But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—
our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.
We thought he brought it on himself,
that God was punishing him for his own failures.
But it was our sins that did that to him,
that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!
He took the punishment, and that made us whole.
Through his bruises we get healed.
We're all like sheep who've wandered off and gotten lost.
We've all done our own thing, gone our own way.
And God has piled all our sins, everything we've done wrong,
on him, on him.

He was beaten, he was tortured,
but he didn't say a word.
Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered
and like a sheep being sheared,
he took it all in silence.
Justice miscarried, and he was led off—
and did anyone really know what was happening?
He died without a thought for his own welfare,
beaten bloody for the sins of my people.
They buried him with the wicked,
threw him in a grave with a rich man,
Even though he'd never hurt a soul
or said one word that wasn't true.

Still, it's what God had in mind all along,
to crush him with pain.
The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin
so that he'd see life come from it—life, life, and more life.
And God's plan will deeply prosper through him.

Out of that terrible travail of soul,
he'll see that it's worth it and be glad he did it.
Through what he experienced, my righteous one, my servant,
will make many "righteous ones,"
as he himself carries the burden of their sins.
Therefore I'll reward him extravagantly—
the best of everything, the highest honors—
Because he looked death in the face and didn't flinch,
because he embraced the company of the lowest.
He took on his own shoulders the sin of the many,
he took up the cause of all the black sheep.