Let’s start with some statistics. In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John there are 89 chapters. There are 4 chapters devoted to the first 30 years of Jesus’ life, and that only in Matthew and Luke. There are 28 chapters devoted to the last week of Jesus’ life (from Palm Sunday through Easter). There are 16+ chapters devoted to the time between the Last Supper and the Resurrection. That points us to the vital importance of this part of Jesus’ life. The death and resurrection of Jesus’ is the most important thing in our faith. Paul wrote, “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.”
Here is one more stat. There are 3749 verses in the Gospels. Of those verses exactly ½ of a verse is dedicated to the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter. Luke 23:56b says, “But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.” With all the chapters dedicated to the last week of Jesus’ life, it seems odd to me that only ½ verse is dedicated to that one day.
Imagine with me what was going on in the minds of the disciples that day. To imagine it, you have to understand the nature of the Jewish Sabbath. The Sabbath was a day of rest. God created the world in six days and then rested on the seventh. The fourth of the Ten Commandments says, “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.”
There were all kinds of rules about what could and couldn’t be done on the Sabbath. No work could be done, but so there was no confusion it was defined to the minutest detail what exactly work entailed. You couldn’t draw water from the well. You couldn’t go on a journey of greater than about one mile. You couldn’t kill anything. You couldn’t buy and sell. You weren’t even allowed to prepare a meal on the Sabbath. All preparations had to be done on the day before. Here’s the kicker: you weren’t even allowed to contemplate such things. The contemplation of taking a journey, engaging in commerce, or anything else construed as labor was strictly forbidden. What are we doing today that violates this? Did you run water from the tap? Did you come more than one mile? The men who will be cooking breakfast shortly will be violating the rules. Even the contemplation of such things would be a violation.
It’s against this backdrop that we come to consider the events of this Saturday. The disciples had traveled with Jesus. They had eaten with him. They had prayed with him. They had seen him do incredible miracles. They had heard his teaching. They had laughed and cried with him. They had left everything to follow him. They had invested their entire lives in him. Now he is dead. They had witnessed it. They were with him in the Garden of Gethsemane when he was arrested and dragged off. They watched his farce of a trial. They observed the beating. They saw him hammered to a hunk of wood. They looked upon his suffering. They saw the Roman soldier plunge his spear into Jesus’ side and saw the blood and water gush out. He was dead. He was as dead as dead could be.
Thursday night they had been with him in the upper room. The emotions of that Friday had no doubt fried their nerves.
Imagine sitting around doing nothing on the Sabbath replaying those events in your mind. Have you ever had something bad happen, only to have a bunch of time to sit around and stew about it?
Perhaps they were thinking about that they could have done something to stop it all. “If only we had done this or that.” All that time they had invested with Jesus over the last three years had been wasted. They could have done something else, anything else. The thoughts played through their minds like terrible movies. They sights were vivid. The crack of the whip on Jesus back echoed in their ears. The ping of the hammer and nails sent shivers up their spines. The stench of blood and death hung in their nostrils. Their stomachs churned with bitterness at everything that had happened. Their Sabbath rest was anything but restful.
Just the night before they had plucked Jesus from that old rugged cross and placed him in a borrowed tomb. They had sealed the tomb with a giant boulder. The Romans put guards at the entrance. The next day some of the women planned to close this horrible chapter of their lives. They would go and give Jesus the proper burial he deserved. Sadness, anger, and confusion hung in the air like a thick morning fog.
What a depressing scene that must of have been. It’s hard for us to imagine. We are on the other side of Easter. We are on the side where we know what happened. They didn’t have the advantage that our perspective gives us.
Sometimes, I think some of us Christians live in the dreariness of the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. We are powerless in our faith. We are scared in our faith. We are depressed in our faith. We live life without joy, replaying the bad time over and over.
It is easy to get caught up in living in the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. We wonder where God is. We can’t believe how he let us down. Sure, we give lip service to his resurrection, but we don’t live like it. We don’t step out on faith. We live in that dark day of despair where Jesus is still sealed up in the tomb.
There are numerous places that we get bogged down. It could be work, school, home, or anywhere. We think that God has abandoned us, much like the disciples did on that Saturday.
Can you imagine what was running through the minds of the disciples as they lay down to sleep that Saturday night? The women would head the next morning to put spices on the body of Jesus so he could have a proper burial.
As the sun burst over the horizon that Sunday morning the women headed out to the tomb. They made a discovery that would forever alter the course of human history. They fully expected to find the decaying corpse of their friend and leader. On the way, they discussed how exactly they could move the boulder when they arrived on the scene. They were carrying the spices that would be used in any good Jewish burial. They certainly did not expect to find the boulder moved and Jesus missing.
Can you imagine the look on their faces as the tomb came into view? The stone was not in front of the opening. They must have looked at each other with a dumbfounded look. They approached for closer investigation. And the stone was indeed gone from in front of the opening. They peeked inside to see what awaited them on the other side. There was no body. There were a couple angels sitting there, who said Jesus was not there, but alive.
From that point on everything changed. Jesus wasn’t dead. The end hadn’t come. It wasn’t the end of the world. They hadn’t wasted the last three years.
We have the advantage of living on the other side of Easter. As Pastor Randy said last week, “We have 20/20 vision looking back on the events.” They were living in the middle of those events. Think about how dark that Saturday seemed to them. Then think about the brightness of that Sunday.
Has your life been truly changed by the events of Easter? The Good News of Easter hasn’t affected many of us Christians. We have made Easter a sort of second-rate holiday. We seem to give more time and effort to Christmas. When it comes to Easter, we focus more on eggs, candy and bunnies. Those things aren’t bad, but we must remember the momentous day that this day truly is. This day should surpass any other day of the year, religious or secular. Listen to the words of St. Paul:
Read 1 Corinthians 15:1-9, 12-20.
Christ’s resurrection means that we will one day we will be raised like he was. That should radically alter our priorities. We spend so much time worrying about this life here and now. We have 401(k)’s, IRAs and life insurance. Those things are certainly good things to consider. We shouldn’t squander the earthly things God has given us. This isn’t all there is. But, if Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, then this is the end of the line. If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, then we might as well live it up now.
Jesus is not dead. He rose. We will rise. Our life doesn’t end here. We are eternal beings. What we do here, affects us for the rest of eternity, not just the next 50-60 years. How has Christ’s resurrection changed you? If Jesus is still in a tomb somewhere, let’s just close the church down and go home. If he is alive, let’s live as though he is alive.
