Darkness to Silence to a Choice

Friday seems to be anything but good. For all the people who experienced it firsthand and saw the trial, the beatings, the mocking, the crowd, the cross and the death - there was nothing good about Good Friday. Knowing the rest of the story, you know there is good to come but pull back from the completed story; place yourself on the very first Good Friday. If you followed Jesus, everything is over. He was defeated and the world kept going. Miraculous things had happened on that day - the sun disappeared, there was a loud cry from heaven, the temple curtain was torn in half. 

Yet the man so many people had placed their hope in was dead. The men who were closer to him than anyone had scattered and gone their own way. They were going back to life as they had known before him. They mourned for what they thought would be but now would not be. The hope they had gained over the last 3 years was  destroyed. Nothing happened in their expected ways. Jesus wasn’t supposed to die. He was supposed to conquer the Romans and bring about God’s kingdom.

Instead they’re preparing him for burial though there wasn’t time to properly prepare him. He was simply given the cloth wrappings and laid in a new tomb. His body wasn’t given a traditional Jewish burial. The women had gathered the burial spices but there wasn’t time to use them for the Sabbath had begun.

And so the spices sat; the disciples sat; the women sat; Jesus lay; death had won.

How uncomfortable that Sabbath must have been for those who knew Jesus. How many things reminded them of him that day? But they could not do the busy work of preparing the body or funeral preparations. They were forced to rest, mourn and be. I can only imagine what was going through their heads, how raw they must have felt, how utterly defeated and broken. Jesus’ last breathe had taken away their hope.

Life continued on that Saturday. Nothing was different. People had died that day before but that is a constant fact of life. Humans are not meant to live forever and Jesus demonstrated that for everyone. The powers that be must have rejoiced on this Saturday as everything was back to how they wanted it to be. They could rest easy. No one could challenge them as Jesus had. They had squashed the movement. They could rest well. They had done their job and maintained the status quo.

I can only imagine what was happening on this day when everything was silent. There is not a recorded account yet things were happening. I wonder if this was a day of rest, as in Genesis after the world had been created,  since the foundation for what God was doing had been lain and before it could be completed, rest was needed to complete the new path. Was God mourning the Son for they were still separated but this time by death? Why is there silence on this day when it would have been so simple for God to raise Jesus back to life right away? I keep returning to this idea of rest. God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit had been working hard these last three years. Yesterday must have been the hardest day of establishing the new path. Rest would have been needed in order to complete the path for even God rests.

After the loudness of Friday, Saturday rings silent and ends in continued hopelessness.

But Sunday. Sunday changes everything. The women can now go and properly prepare Jesus’ body. They can give him the spices as the day starts… if they can move the stone sealing his tomb. Their path still isn’t clear or easy but they’re drawn to this job - it’s the last thing they can do for Jesus, the man they thought was here to save everyone. Even in this job though there’s still an obstacle that they must overcome and they’re unsure how to do that. 

When they arrive at the tomb, their expectations are not met. Instead they find the stone rolled away and an empty tomb. Well empty of a body. There is a man there who tells them Jesus had risen and is on his way to meet them elsewhere. Hope can live again but they must choose to believe in the hope they’ve been given. They must believe that Jesus has been raised from the dead and walks among them.

In this moment, they’re given a choice: see the stone and they’re human weakness or see the empty tomb and God’s might and strength. It’s not an easy choice to make. These women had an advantage over us today. They were able to actually see Jesus and interact with him in his physical body. Today we’re not able to see him with our own eyes. Even so He makes himself known to us through people, experiences, and His Word. He hasn’t left us alone to figure out who He is on our own. He is near us even in the darkest of times. We simply need to find Him, draw closer to Him and trust in Him. It’s not always easy. Sometimes the stone in front of our path reminds us of how small we are yet He uses those times to remind us that He is with us and can move the stone in front of us. We are free to choose what option we want to pick. It is up to us: do we choose Him and look up or do we choose to look straight ahead?