SATURDAY.
I woke up this morning thinking of what Saturday must have felt like for Jesus' followers the very next day after He was crucified.
I wonder if it felt even worse than Good Friday.
My immediate answer is yes. Even if they didn't sleep a wink that night- Friday transitioned into Saturday and it most likely happened right before their tear stained eyes.
A new day underlined a new reality.
I'm pretty confident that most of us can relate to that moment, just as you start waking up to that next day, after having experienced something really painful or seemingly unbearable, in that semi awake -semi asleep state, there is this new reality your subconscious hasn't fully processed or accepted yet. And for a brief moment, you are convinced it actually didn't happen.
Despite having this subconscious recollection of experienced pain, there still persists an instinctive hope that perhaps this unsettled feeling is disconnected from reality. Maybe it was just a nightmare.
Then, as your groggy brain catches up with your heart or vice versa- that onset of grief presents itself as your new reality.
There is no reset button. There is no undoing what happened on Friday.
Saturday just accentuates the aftermath of Friday.
It's when "disappointment" takes the passenger seat right next to "shock", who is still behind the wheel at this point. And even though Jesus had prepared His disciples for what was coming, they weren't prepared for a world without Him in it.
It was crushing in every way.
Some carrying massive shame and guilt, like Peter. Not just waking up to a world without Jesus in it, but also waking up to his denial of Him- just as Jesus foretold. Regret seems like an understatement.
And in the wake of their world being turned up side down, we can only assume the disciples started remembering all the things Jesus had told them during His time with them. John 16,
16 “A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while,
and you will see me.”
17 So some of his disciples said to one another,
“What is this that he says to us, ‘A little while, and you will not see me,
and again a little while, and you will see me’; and,
‘because I am going to the Father’?”
18 So they were saying, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’?
We do not know what he is talking about.”
19 Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them,
“Is this what you are asking yourselves, what I meant by saying,
‘A little while and you will not see me, and
again a little while and you will see me’?
Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament,
but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy.
21 When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish,
for joy that a human being has been born into the world.
22 So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice,
and no one will take your joy from you. "
Perhaps the Saturday season has felt like a long one for you. Maybe it goes way back to your childhood or maybe it all just unraveled yesterday. Maybe it wasn't wasn't your fault or maybe it was. Maybe it's something you could have prevented from happening or maybe it was something completely out of your control.
Needless to say, the reason(Friday) for your Saturday is irrelevant to this reality: Because of Jesus we have SUNDAY.
And Sunday changes everything.
Sunday is the surprise ending after the plot twist. What no one saw coming.
Jesus foretold a joy that would be "un-stealable", see verse 22. This describes a joy and a hope outside of our circumstance that we can only truly experience in Him.
It won't make sense to the world, or to us sometimes.
Jesus doesn't dismiss or disregard the pain of Friday and Saturday- He overrides it with redemption.
That’s Love at it’s finest. Love at it’s bravest. Love in it’s full expression-piercing through the darkness and despair of our souls with the promise that whatever we may have to endure on this side of eternity is no match to the joy that awaits us in Christ Jesus.
Time to rise and shine, Sunday's already here.
"In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world. " - Jesus