About this day in Holy Week, an ancient and anonymous writer said, “Something strange is happening – there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep.”
How could it be otherwise? All the hopes and expectations of those who followed Jesus were buried away in a sealed-up tomb. It looked so promising, so victorious, so hopeful, and now the one in whom they hoped, lay buried in a borrowed tomb. It seem to be all for nothing. How could it end this way?
The believers would not know what was transpiring in the world on that Saturday, until after His resurrection when Jesus revealed Himself to be alive again. In the moment, however, they were stunned, shocked, and dismayed. What happened on Friday made no sense to them, and they had no handle on how to anticipate what would happen on Sunday morning. Now they lived in a land of the in-between: in-between death and resurrection.
In a way, isn’t this where we live? Yes, we know the victory of Good Friday, and the majesty of Easter Sunday, but many times we live in-between. Perhaps, you have been there. You’ve had many unanswered questions, carried much pain, wondered what it means for Jesus to be Lord in the everyday and broken world. Many times you have looked life in the face and asked, “Why?” You looked for answers but received only “a great silence.”
We now know that Jesus was raised up from the grave and this reality has made a profound difference in our lives. Still, in this dangerous world we walk by faith, and know that in life there is much uncertainty, pain, suffering, bewilderment, frustration. Sometimes, the silence is deafening.
We need to remember that Jesus did not come simply to offer easy answers to complicated questions. Instead, He embraces us in His love, establishes us in His resurrected life, calls us to prayer, and enables us to “keep fervent in our love for one another.” How do we defeat the kind of evil that sentenced Jesus to die? By allowing His love to cleanse our hearts and fill them with His love. We may have many questions that will go unanswered until the day of Christ’s return, but we do not live in fear or frustration. We live in the victory that overcomes the world.
As a prayer from the old prayer book says,
O God, Creator of heaven and earth: Grant that, as the crucified body of your dear Son was laid in the tomb and rested on this holy Sabbath, so we may await with him the coming of the third day, and then rise with him to newness of life; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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