Sunday, April 12, 2020
A lot has been written about Friday. A great deal has been written about Sunday: i.e., Easter Sunday. How much thought have we given to Saturday?
Of course, Jesus had been crucified Friday before noon when darkness fell across the land (Matthew 27:45). He died around 3 pm (Matthew 27:46). Shortly afterwards His body was taken down and hurriedly buried in the tomb before 6 pm (John 19:31, 38-40), the beginning of the Sabbath day of rest.
EASTER
Looking back through the eyes of faith, the hope of Christians is anchored in the fact that Jesus arose from the dead. In fact, the apostle Paul makes the assertion that if it is not true, Christians should be among the most pitied (1 Corinthians 15:12-19).
SATURDAY
To come closer to realizing how important Jesus’ resurrection was to His followers, it is worth considering the darkness of Saturday. In fact, it is John who tells us that when Jesus appeared to His disciples after His passion they were in a room with locked doors (John 20:19, 26).
This makes perfect sense. Likely they were afraid of suffering the same fate of their Master. Indeed, Cleopas and his friend on the road to Emmaus admits, “we had hoped” to the disguised, resurrected Jesus (Luke 24:21).
COVED-19 AND SATURDAY
The truth is that we know how they were feeling on that Saturday between despair and rejoicing. At some point in life everyone has their Saturdays when it is hard to fight off the cratering feeling of hopelessness and hold onto the last strands of hope.
These type of Saturdays include those late night phone calls, doctor visits, pink slips and stay-in-place orders that lead us to wonder about the future. Just listen closely to the present debate between those who promote enduring the isolation for multiple months and those who are ready to get back to work. No doubt it will be a life-and-death decision for some. Others fear that going much longer will risk jumping off of the cliff of economic disaster. In the meantime…it’s Saturday.
SUNDAY’S COMING
A great thing about the Saturdays of life is that we know that Sunday is coming. Had the disciples truly believed that Friday’s tragedy was going to result in Sunday’s exuberance they might have been less afraid. Just as they were certain that Jesus was dead and buried, so also their excited anticipation of Sunday may have led them to live differently on Saturday. Me? I’d have been camping out in front of the tomb, waiting to see how Jesus was going to do it!
And so, we endure our Saturdays with hope because we know that resurrection day is coming one day. How is this realization of a wondrous future is leading us to live differently today?
COMMUNION
We continue to encourage everyone to practice communion around the dinner table as a part of a meal. But, if you would prefer our more traditional order of worship we will continue to post our YouTube communion. You may follow our link by clicking HERE or on the image below.