We all like a happy ending don’t we? We want that warm fuzzy feeling that everything is going to be okay. That everything has worked out. That everyone has gotten what they wanted.
When we look at the Easter story we have a tendency to focus on Good Friday and Easter Sunday, right? The Death and the Resurrection. But was of Saturday? I had never really thought much about this middle day until I heard a song by a friend of mine several years ago. Saturday’s Disciples, by Rachel Kurtz.
Raw. Intimate. Vulnerable. Transparent. Challenging.
Reality.
Oh, what we can learn from the in between. The waiting. The pauses in life. The time to breath.
What that day must have been like. For the disciples. For the believers. For all the men and women who had come to know and believe in the man that they believed was the Messiah. Many had left home and family to follow him. Had given up everything they had and knew.
And for what? A man? Who was now gone. Dead. Laid in a tomb. What now? What about all the promises that Jesus had made? Now their lives were in danger. Now they were on the run. And for the guiltiest of the them all, Judas, he was broken beyond despair. The shame of betrayal was too much to bear.
How often are we living like Saturday’s Disciples?
On the run. Impatient. Questioning. In denial. In rebellion.
Waiting. What seems like an unending suffering. That time of life when we forget the promise. When we question. When we challenge God. When everything he has told us has been set to the side because all we see is this time in between. And so instead of embracing his purpose and truth for our lives, instead of living in faith, we choose to run. Or we even choose to quit all together. We just give up.
But the story didn’t end on Saturday. That is the beauty of the Easter story. God could have written this story without Saturday. Without the pause. Jesus could have risen straight away, but I think we would have missed something significant in the process.
Stillness.
Be still and know that I am God.
Faith is blind. Unreasonable. Pure.
That time when we learn. And grow. And strengthen. When God sees the best of who we are come alive. So on this Easter Saturday I challenge you to stop. To wait. To be still. What is God asking you to believe in? What is he pressing on your heart that seems impossible? What is that thing that you have been running from for so long? Because there has never been a better day than today to rest in-between the cross and a Risen King who has only the best plans for your life. That heaviness you have been carrying is something he is ready and willing to take. That doubt and fear has already been defeated.
He knows our hearts. He sees our intentions. Our desires. Our needs. Our desperation.
Even the disciples ran. Even these men who knew Jesus were fallible. But Jesus rose. He rose. So wherever you are. Whatever you are going through today. The only thing you need to remember is this...
Jesus rose.