What Now?

Good Friday is the day of the Greatest Love Story ever told. But what of Holy Saturday?

The bible is strangely silent at this point. The Good Friday story from the point of view of Mark finishes with this verse:

"Joseph bought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen, and placed it in a tomb cut out of the rock. Then he rolled the stone against the entrance of the tomb. Mary Magdalene & Mary the mother of Joseph saw where he was laid" Mark 15:46-47

The next chapter then opens up after the Sabbath (Saturday) was over.

From what i can see from the biblical text, all of Jesus' disciples ran away "Everyone deserted him and fled" Mark 14:50-51, understandably they must have felt such confusion and fear, disappointment & anger. They had seen Jesus' miracles up close & personal, they had been with him for three years, they knew him better than anyone else. All that Jesus had said & done had been proved right & yet here was their best friend being arrested and tortured in the most horrific way in front of their eyes. I think that I would have run too? But I wonder if they crept back & watched their friend die, from a safe, hidden distance? We are told that Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James & Joseph and some other women from Jerusalem watched the crucifixion from a distance and they "cared for Jesus' needs". I love that the women were brave, strong & steadfast in the face of such turmoil. The fact that women, the most maligned & undervalued members of their society, play such a key part of this story speaks volumes.

Just for a minute imagine with me, the atmosphere on the Sabbath (Holy Saturday). Darkness had fallen from noon until three in the afternoon on Friday, the curtain in the temple had been ripped in two.

Matthew tells us that as Jesus breathed his last, "the earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life"

WHAT??? Its hard to picture isn't it? But it must have felt as though the world was teetering, the atmosphere heavy, sad, unfulfilled and yet full of something else? What was that? Expectancy?

What of Jesus' mother Mary? - she who was so full of faith that she absolutely had no doubt that her son would change water into wine. What of the disciples that had run away? How must they have been feeling?

I think that we exist within that Holy Saturday limbo state. So, so many of my friends are there right now. We have experienced good, incredible moments in life and yet at this moment... all seems lost, disappointment & darkness reigns, what has happened to the promises of joy and fulfilment?

In his book "God on Mute", Pete Greig writes:

"I guess it's the one day in the entire year when the Church has nothing to say. And yet, although we know so little about it, Holy Saturday seems to me to describe the place in which many of us live our lives: waiting for God to speak. We know that Jesus died for us yesterday. We trust that there may be miracles tomorrow. But what of today - this eternal Sabbath when heaven is silent? Where, we wonder, is God now?"

So, where is God now? Jesus promised that He would rise again but on Holy Saturday we are yet to see it. We wait & we watch just as those women did.

I won't make empty platitudes of "everything will be ok" & " it'll all turn out right in the end" because i know for many of you, that simply isn't your current truth.

BUT I do know that tomorrow is Easter Sunday, you will one day leave the gloominess of your tomb like situation, the promise of New Life is over the horizon. It's just a sleep away. What seems like forever right now, will be viewed through the glorious lens of hindsight, as a dark night's sleep.

I will leave you with a heartrending quote from my dear friend Emily who has been through the worst 18months imaginable:

"God is just as much with us (if not more so) during the pain of Easter Saturday as He is with us in the victories of Easter Sunday, whether it is round the corner or not"

#hope #darkness #Easter #loss