My first submission to the Mansfield News Journal was published this morning. This link should be available for a few weeks, but I'm also publishing it here on ChurchRequel.com.
Welcome to the day between two of the biggest days on the Christian calendar. Yesterday was Good Friday. Tomorrow will be Easter. We know about the tragedy of Good Friday and the miracle of Easter Sunday. What about the Saturday-in-between? Are there lessons from that first Saturday-in-between that could benefit us today?
For just a moment, can you freeze frame that first Saturday-in-between? Those closest to Jesus surely had lost their hope when he died on the cross. He had been their greatest teacher, their servant leader, and their connection to God Himself. His followers had all vowed to defend Jesus or to die with him. When the testing moment came, they all ran.
Now, on this Saturday-in-between, they knew their leader had died. And with him, their hopes died as well. No new faith. No freedom from Rome. No more lessons from Heaven. No more miracles on Earth. And yet... hadn’t Jesus also said something about the third day? Was there still the possibility of finding hope in the midst of hopelessness?
Are you living in the Saturday-in-between? Have you heard a death sentence? “I’m sorry... there’s nothing we could do...” “I’m leaving you...” “We regret to inform you...” “Time to call Hospice.” Those Saturdays-in-between of your life when all hope has been lost. Is there still the possibility of finding hope in the midst of hopelessness?
There is little written about that first Saturday-in-between. What little we know provides us three lessons of how those first Christ-followers navigated from the hopelessness of Friday to the hope of Sunday. No false hope here. No miracles. Just some hopeful advice.
First hopeful advice: Rest. Our first inclination when receiving a death sentence is to try anything. Try everything! There must be something we can do! Dr. Luke tells us that the women prepared spices and ointments for Jesus’ body. Because it was the Sabbath, “they rested according to the commandment.” Can you imagine how difficult that must have been for them? Just to rest. To do nothing. Rest, though, is not just doing nothing. It prepares the mind and the body for the next day. Sometimes the most productive thing we can do - and the most hopeful thing we can do - is to rest.
Second hopeful advice: Connect. When we are in the midst of a death sentence, our tendency is to isolate ourselves from other people. Ironically it’s at the very moment we need the support of others that we are least likely to seek it. Luke recounts that when the women returned from the empty tomb, “they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest.” After the defeat of Friday, but before the wonder of Sunday, those first Christ-followers found their way to one another. Despite their cowardice. No matter their failure. In the face of their despair. We increase our chances of finding hope in the midst of hopelessness when we find other people.
Third hopeful advice: Pray. Connect with God. It’s inconceivable that those first Christ-followers gathered together on the Sabbath without praying. Their lifelong habits of the Sabbath always included prayer. They had, after all, been taught by the Master how to pray. Surely with regret, they recalled Jesus imploring them to pray when all they wanted to do was sleep. When all hope has been lost, praying connects us with the Source of hope. We might not be able to see around the next cliff-hanging corner of life... or death. But we can connect with One who breathes life into the nostrils of death, Who gives us hope in the midst of hopelessness.
Saturdays-in-between will face each one of us. The hopelessness of Friday can overwhelm. When Saturday’s hope seems impossible to find, stop searching for hope itself. Instead find rest. Connect with people. Pray to God. Maybe the hope of Sunday will find you.
