It is hard to imagine what the disciples and followers of
Jesus went through on the first “Good” Friday…
They had just celebrated Passover with Jesus the night
before. He had transformed their
lives. They had left everything behind
to follow Him.
Now, it seemed all for nothing. He was crucified…hung on a cross…humiliated
and torchered. Stripped, literally, of
all human dignity.
They did not have the whole story at that moment. This was the lowest point in life for them,
surely. They did not have the gift of
history…the whole of Scripture… the comfort of knowing, at least in part, the
“why.”
Once when I was watching a clip of the Jesus movie, I saw
the chaos and the fear in the faces of the actors as Jesus was crucified…it
became more real to me in that moment.
How devastating this day must have been.
How hopeless it must have seemed.
How ironic, that because of this seemingly devastating day
in history, I can have HOPE. How like
God to turn the world upside down, to bring life out of death, to bring Hope
out of hopelessness. He has done this
for mankind. He has done this for me.
I am a life changed because of that first Good Friday. Are you?
He was delivered over to death for our sins, and was raised to life for our justification. Romans 4:25
...He will swallow up death forever. The Soverign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces; He will remove the disgrace of His people from all the earth. The Lord has spoken. Isaiah 25:8
What a great Saturday a.m....catching up on my Janice's writings, great anticipation for Sunday and lots of sunshine
ReplyDeleteSharing from another friend Ann Starette...for your Saturday pondering:
A long tradition of the Christian church is to keep vigil at different times and in different ways throughout the year, but especially during the three holiest days: Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday.
Holy Saturday, the day between the crucifixion and the resurrection, is the day Jesus rested in the tomb. Holy Saturday has traditionally been a day to wait, to be still, to hope against hope. Scripture tells us when everyone else had left, ". . . Mary Magdalene and the other Mary stayed, sitting in plain view of the tomb" (Matthew 27). So, we wait. We keep vigil with them.
This day "between" darkness and hope is a place many of us find ourselves more often than we'd like to admit. If the resurrection of Jesus is about anything, it is about the promise and hope that the mother of all do-overs can enter our lives too! Maybe you're in a Saturday kind of place---between a dark time and a promise you only half believe. Pastor John Ortberg reminds us, "Know this for sure, God's Easter irony is still at work, and he can use even the worst tragedies for good, and he always has at least one more move left. No matter how bleak and dark Saturday gets, Sunday's coming. Sunday's coming!"
Thank you Sherri! Great post!
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