I’ve been thinking a lot about Easter this week. The big boys will be on a beach trip with their mom, the sisters’ dresses are too big, and I’m pulling a lot of solo parenting while Chris prepares for a couple of different events around town. When I get past all of the noise, though, I can’t help but think about Saturday.
First, there’s Good Friday. I recently mmm-ed my way through a message by Andy Stanley, where he described Jesus’ perfect ability to live grace and truth. He was both, all of the time, as messy as it got. When push came to shove, He called sin what it was. And then he took it to the cross and died for it.
So there was death, and it was good.
And then there’s the famous Easter Sunday. He is risen. He is risen indeed. Christians rarely contemplate too deeply the idea that Jesus overcame the grave. He conquered death fiercely and swiftly, and we are forever indebted to Him for it.
So there was defeat, and it was good.
The part that grabbed me this week was a quick snippet on the local Christian radio station, about the day in between the crucifixion and the resurrection. It quickly headed in a different direction, but I was left stuck on Saturday. For an entire day, hope was gone. Jesus was dead, God was heartbroken, and mankind was utterly alone.
So there was despair, and it was not good.
It was raw. It was powerful. It was overwhelmingly sad.
Doesn’t that make Sunday taste all the sweeter, then?
Happy Easter, folks. Soak it up this weekend.
9 Comments
Love seeing this post today. Took a walk to the playground with my mother in law, my Jesus mentor, yesterday and while the babies slept we recounted what Jesus walked through this week and into the weekend. What he faced, what he knew, what he overcame so willingly. When we got up to Saturday we too paused. We sat on the darkness of Saturday. The silence, we felt the pain, the weight, as you said the despair. And then He is risen! Sheesh… the power in that…such a metaphorical life tool in whatever we want to apply it to. A gift from our father over and over.
This made me cry!!
oH how this struck home… you see late yesterday afternoon one of the boys on the track team, a young man with a profound love for the Lord, accidentally pulled in front of a truck on his way home from practice… a few hours later he went home to be with his Lord. His family and our school… well right now they are feeling the heartbreak, the despair, the raw grief…. Kalin is now at home, at peace, worshipping in the presence of the Lord he loved so dearly. My prayer is that no one gets stuck on that day in between…. we grieve but in morning comes the glory of the Lord.
truly, holy saturday is the darkest day of the year. the world without the Light, can we even imagine?
Wow great perspective totally made me think a little differently about Easter Sunday
-Lexy
Neat!
As in, neat that it did the same for you that it did for me!
I’ve been thinking about this for the last few days. This has been a hard, dark year for me – but I know God is still good. Thank you for the perspective check.
He is! I hope your 2013 turns around.