Today is the middle day of
Easter. Saturday. The day that very little is written about it but
so much must have gone on. I am trying
to imagine what it must have been like on that Saturday. For the disciples. For Mary – Jesus mother. For Jesus Himself. For Satan.
For God the Father.
Can you imagine the
disciples? Here the man they had
followed for the last several years, who claimed to be their Messiah – the long
awaited one – was now dead. He’d been killed
and while Jesus Himself had predicted this, I cannot imagine the agony and
disbelief they must have felt. The day
after. They must have been angry. They must have felt deceived. I bet they questioned every little thing they
had heard Jesus tell them and yet wondered at all the signs and miracles He had
performed. Did they believe His
message? Were they trying to reconcile
in their own minds that Jesus was the Messiah but now He was gone?
What about Mary? I can only try to imagine the agony she must
have felt at loosing her son. Beyond the
fact the He was the Son of God. Her baby. Her first born gone. Yes, I believe she understood who He
was. I believe she got – likely more
than most – that He was the Messiah. The
one who had been promised so many years before.
But to her, Jesus was her boy.
Her baby. Her cherished
child. And now he was gone. Did she believe that He would be
resurrected? I can imagine that she
would have believed that in the end Jesus would have been spared death. That if He truly was the Son of God that He
would be spared the brutality He experienced.
That in the end despite that brutality, death would not touch Him. But she witnessed with her own eyes her son’s
death. She saw His limp body being taken
down off the cross. She knew he was gone. The agony she must have felt on this Silent
Saturday!!!
And what about Jesus? Jesus was in Hell. He was experiencing the agony that we should experience. He was going through everything that we would
have had to go through, except for the fact that Jesus was taking it on
Himself. I really don’t know and can’t
even begin to imagine what He was going through after His death. I don’t know enough about Hell to try to
conjure up images of what Jesus was enduring.
But I know enough to know that it was awful. For the Son of God to go through what He was. For me.
For all of us. What love. What agony.
But what a gift!!!
And what about Satan. I think He must have been beside himself with
delight. In his mind he had conquered
God. He had finished what he set out to
do – by destroying Jesus. He must have
been ecstatic. Probably sitting back in
disbelief thinking how on earth did I accomplish this? What now?
I’ve done what I set out to do? He
must have thought that he was now better than God because he had taken down God’s
Son. What a fool. What a mistake. What complete failure!!
And for God the Father. .
. Watching His Son be brutalized and die.
And then know the most awful thing He was enduring – Hell. To know that He allowed Jesus to go through
all that suffering and to experience Hell because Jesus loved His people so
much. I often wonder – how much more God
the Father must love us. Because He
ALLOWED Jesus to sacrifice Himself for US – for ME. I sometimes try to imagine the conversation
between the Father and Jesus. When Jesus
said that He wanted to die for us. What
must God have said? NO WAY!!! They made their own mistakes. They need to pay for their own sins. You’ve done nothing wrong. I imagine Jesus pleading on our behalf with
God. Telling Him just how much He loves
us and how He didn’t want us to have to go through the torture of Hell and how
He wanted to take that on for us. I imagine
what love God had for Jesus and what love He must have for us to allow His Precious
Son to go through the torture and ultimate depths of Hell – for me. For us.
And on that Silent Saturday. As
He thought on the agony that His Precious Son was going through. He knew Jesus would rise again and be with Him,
but He also knew everything that Jesus was taking on for us. I can’t imagine the anguish God the Father
must have been feeling for us. (I
realize I am humanizing God and trying to put human qualities on a God that
cannot be humanized. Please forgive me
if you find that offensive. I am only
trying to understand – something I never will fully be able to do on this side
of Heaven – what transpired that day.)
So on this Silent Saturday,
I sit staring up into the cold blue sky thinking about that day. Thinking about what all transpired on that
Saturday between Jesus’ death, and His resurrection. Thinking of what that
Saturday must have been like for all involved.
Thinking about the agony, the despair, the awfulness that must have been
experienced on that day. And I
wonder. This all happened for me. This all started because Jesus loved me so much. I am the reason. I am the one Jesus loved so much that He was
willing to go through all of it. I am
the one that God saw and said “Yes. I am
willing to let my Son die – for her.”
What a gift. What a
treasure. What amazing grace.
So on this Silent Saturday. What will I do with this gift? What will I do with this grace? What will I do with this treasure Jesus has
gifted to me? Will I honour Him? Will I give my Life back to Him? Will I boldly share with others about this
gift that they too can receive? On this
Silent Saturday, I challenge you to take a look at your life, as I am doing
today, to search silently within the quietness of your own heart and see if
yours is right with Jesus. See if what
you are doing brings glory and honour to the One who laid down His life for
you.
“Be Still and know that I
am God.” On this Silent Saturday, lets
think about what Jesus did for us, and what we can do for Him.
May you have a blessed
Easter as you contemplate what this Gift means to you!!
