Saturday, April 7, 2012
Holy Saturday
Luke 23:53-56 … [Joseph of Arimathea] took [Jesus' body] down and wrapped it in a linen shroud and laid him in a tomb cut in stone, where no one had ever yet been laid. It was the day of Preparation, and the Sabbath was beginning. The women who had come with him from Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how his body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and ointments. On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.
EMPTY DISCIPLES, SOON EMPTY TOMB
Saturday was the Sabbath. A day dedicated to worshiping Jehovah, and to that end, a day that the people refrained from usual tasks. But for the disciples of Christ, this Sabbath was not filled with thoughts of peace and joyful worship. Instead this Saturday was filled with emptiness, confusion, regret, fear, and sad prayer.
The Master was dead.
Perhaps they feared that the Pharisees might arrested them also. Perhaps they were ashamed of their cowardly flight from Jesus when He had been arrested. For whatever reason, only John had stood at the foot of the cross the day before. None of the apostles, but only two secret followers of Jesus had come forward to bury the Master. The twelve would not have even known where the tomb of Jesus was had not Mary Magdalene and the other Mary followed to see where Jesus' body would be laid to rest.
Empty. Perhaps that is the word that best describes the apostles on this Saturday. Hollowed out. All their hopes dashed on the rocks of Calvary.
Oh, how their later selves must have looked back on that Saturday's mourning with glowing hearts and laughing souls. They had been SO wrong on that day of rest. It WAS an empty day, but not because there was no hope. It was empty like the calm before a storm. It was empty like the silence of an in-taken breath before the first note of a new song rings out with strength and beauty.
Today the disciples were empty.
Tomorrow the tomb.
