It's Saturday

It’s Saturday

The commotion of Good Friday is over.  The three who were crucified have died.  The crowd that came to watch the event has gone home.

Behind the huge stone of Joseph of Arimathea’s tomb lies the body of the Man who claimed to be the Son of God, the One to whom so many had attached their earthly hope of a Deliverer who would set their nation free from bondage to Rome.

We who love freedom understand their hope.  The Roman Empire had spread itself over the known world, conquering and subjecting nations wherever it marched.  The Jews, a proud people who claimed that their God was GOD, refused to bow before the Roman gods, refused to allow their minds or spirits to be subjected to the invading pagan hordes or their gods of stone.

They had attached their hope for deliverance to numerous charismatic leaders in the past, but THIS ONE had seemed different; THIS ONE had a power that defied explanation and inspired hope.  This MAN could calm the seas.  This MAN could unstop deaf ears.  This MAN could open blind eyes.  This MAN could cast out demonic forces.  This MAN could raise the dead!  Surely, when HE had amassed HIS army, HE could drive the detested Romans from their land!

But now, this ONE who seemed to possess the power of Heaven was laying dead in a borrowed tomb.

HIS followers, including the two who’d argued over who would be of highest rank in HIS Kingdom, had walked away from the brutal scene, from the mangled flesh and dried blood of HIS horrific wounds, from the crown of thorns upon HIS head that gouged HIS countenance and smeared it with blood; they closed their eyes to the scene, but the memory of the death blow from the wound of HIS pierced side accompanied them.

So, HE lay in a borrowed tomb with their hope of freedom, with their yearning for a Kingdom where their GOD reigns, buried with HIM.

But, IT’S SATURDAY.

"And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others." Ephesians 2:1-5