Have you ever noticed how around Easter the days all have names - Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Resurrection Sunday, even Palm Sunday - except Saturday? It's just a Saturday, and justly so. It was blank for the disciples too. The whirlwind of events suddenly stopped, and they were left
alone.
Faced with the inevitable conclusion that their only hope, the center of their last three years, was finally and permanently dead. Gone. The end.
It was their Sabbath, the day of rest, but their hearts had no rest.
It was the end of the week of rejoicing! Rejoicing over God's salvation - salvation which (had they only known!) had celebrated the feast with them! But there was no joy in their hearts. Heaviness. Deadness. Numbness. But no joy. Why would there be joy?
I'm sure they were glad for the break to go to synogogue, to say the ritual blessings and have the typical meal. It helped them forget what they wished not to think of, yet desperately tried to remember: the One they learned to love and to call the Christ, the hope of Israel, the one sent from God. It helped them forget what they hoped never to think of again, yet were tormented by every minute: how they deserted Him in His final moments. They feebly attempt to plan the future yet stumble over the horrors of the past and the numbness of the present.
It was a blank.
It was just a Saturday.
It was also a just Saturday.
Have you ever considered the fact that for Christ to pay the penalty for all our sin, He must take the punishment of Hell? The Cross was not enough. Even there He experienced human love, kindness, testimony to His true nature. Moreover, God Himself ordained that the punishment for sin is Hell forever. Wrath forever - wait, how does three days count for forever?
Enter my theory of eternity :-)
Just some thoughts :-)
2 comments:
Awesome post, Cara! I really liked it. Great angle. Most sermons skip the feeling of the disciples between Friday and Sunday - they do call our attention to their joy on Sunday morning, but I thought your take on Saturday was pretty neat. =)
so...do you know what 'Maundy Thursday' is?
~mee
I agree with "Mee". =) It is an interesting angle, one often not covered.
a) Something interesting to note, though, is that the disciples did not scatter completely, disappear, or pretend it did not exist, which would have been logical assuming that if Jesus was dead, all the people closest to him would be persecuted because "they might cause a revolution like He almost did" or something like that. But rather, when Jesus appears to them in Mark 16, the eleven are gathered at a table together. Even though it might have been foolish to remain together, they still were together when Jesus was raised and gave them all the best surprise of their lives. ^_^ A sign of God's sustaining power in the disciples, I think. =)
Even through that "just Saturday"(^_^), God was at work, possibly keeping that last hope in the disciples hearts.
b) Addressing your interesting note on eternity/suffering in hell for us, though....^_^ 'Tis quite an interesting thought. I have oft considered how that works, but to little avail. So any thoughts of yours would be appreciated. =)
--Josiah C.
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