SILENT SATURDAY
Have you ever followed a drama series or watched a movie with twists and turns that kept you spellbound to the end, only to reach an anti-climactic conclusion. By then, you have invested too much emotionally to shrug it off, wondered why you failed to see it coming, what you had misinterpreted along the way, and how the ending made you feel so cheated.
If all the events leading up to Good Friday was part of a movie, then Jesus’ crucifixion was a letdown to His disciples and all followers. The plot pivoted and got darker and darker after the Last Supper on Maundy Thursday, and in the end, the innocent took the fall for a known criminal, good did not triumph over evil, and Jesus was no longer around to explain the irony.
Without Jesus, they could only turn inward to find their own voice of conviction, and turn outward to each other for commiseration.
Let’s try to go through their emotional journey vicariously and see how it contrasted with what was actually foretold by Jesus and the reality that unfolded.
1. It must have felt like a Silent Saturday
On Friday, the key protagonist - the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6), the Word made flesh (John 1:14), the Bread of Life (John 6:35), the Good Shepherd (John 7:11), the Gate for the sheep (John 10:7), the Son of God (John 16:16) - was executed like a criminal.
Just before Sabbath, Jesus was buried in a tomb. The Bible did not record any conversations between any of His disciples that day. However, they faced a silence that was less about a complete absence of speech than it was about being suppressed by widespread hostility, the lack of redress for injustice, and the lack of information to satisfy their search for answers.
Yet, those who persecuted Jesus did not forget that He prophesied about rising from the dead three days later. They took His word for it and were busy strategizing ways to prevent any ‘resurrection act’ that could happen. Preparations were promptly made to maximize the security around the tomb so that no one could steal the corpse and stage a fake resurrection.
The plot thickened: the ‘movie’ did not end at His burial.
2. Too Little, Too Late
Most of us believe that the more time we spend time on something, the better it should contribute towards a desired outcome or goal. If the outcome does not produce an envisioned ideal, then everything done in the past must have been inadequate or a total failure. We then conclude that it’s too late for anything to change. The train has left the station.
Thus, when the disciples saw the irreversibility of the crucifixion, they lost faith in everything. Never mind that, up to that point, everything that Jesus spoke to them about, had already taken place: everything was going according to plan. In reality, Jesus had not failed them.
“Surely, as I have planned, so it will be,
and as I have purposed, so it will happen.”
ISAIAH 14:24 NIV
If you have ever felt like you’ve prayed enough, waited too long for change to happen, or run out of ideas to keep going, and met with only silence from God, let 2 Peter 3:8 interject your rumination: “But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day.”
God wants you to know that the years have not been wasted. Remember the song that goes like this:
You have been good
You have been good
I am in wonder how it could be
You have been good
You've been so good
So many ways You've been good to me
3. Your Sunday Is Coming
Today, we enjoy a long weekend from Good Friday to Easter Sunday (some countries also enjoy an Easter Monday). But for the disciples on that first Easter weekend, it was anything but celebratory. Although Jesus had forewarned them about the tragic events that would take place, they were caught off-guard, unprepared to deal with the multifaceted ramifications of a dead Saviour – even for a day.
The disciples likely felt that they could not see Sunday coming and Jesus rising from the dead. Sorrow and hopelessness have a way of clouding our minds, obscuring our recollection of the past, sabotaging our trust in people, and hijacking our faith in God.
We can imagine that, overnight, the disciples felt abandoned and betrayed by their leader. What was a group without a leader? What was a Saviour who could not save Himself from death? It was a rhetoric that led to a dead-end on Saturday, not an empty tomb on Sunday. The time between Saturday and Easter Sunday is best summed up in Proverbs 13:12 (NJKV): ‘Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.’
Yet, as Jesus foretold, He rose again on Sunday.
Today, His resurrection is as irrevocable as God’s promises and plans for your life. Let Him resurrect hope and courage in your heart. Trust that He will do the miraculous for your Sunday to arrive.
