-Strength for Today- "The Saturday –Like- Experience" - Matthew 27: 62-66.
When Jesus died, His disciples’ didn’t focus on what He’d taught them, (Mark 9:31), but on what they’d just experienced Friday. To them, their world as they knew it was over, and the shock of what had taken place left them, emotionally drained.
They hadn’t slept, or perhaps eaten that familiar anything. It was as if life had stopped, because all their hopes had been tied to Jesus. He was going to lead them to the great life the Bible had promised. And in Him, they saw this great life. And for the first time, because of Him, they felt significant. They believed they were making a difference… now suddenly . . . it was all gone. And they begin to think that they’d wasted their lives. Matter of fact, some of you’re feeling that way now about a marriage or a relationship that:
· You’ve given your best years to, and
· Then one day they walked out on you,
Leaving you feeling that your best years had been stolen from you. My friend, that’s how the disciples must’ve felt. Because they’d:
· Invested the last three years of their lives,
· Traveling all over the place,
Being trained for a great opportunity for the future. But now with their trusted Leader was dead, and they were inexpressibly confused.
They probably sat around, with the exception of Thomas, on Friday night and most of Saturday “afraid,”, and “fearing” that those officials might come for them next. All that they’d experienced were tied to Jesus, but now, all their:
· Hopes and
· Dreams
Were now buried in a borrowed man’s tomb -Luke 23:50-56. And now there was nothing… I mean nothing. This is why it’s so important to see what Saturday was like. Many people, including some who’re reading this message today are living in a “Saturday-like existence”:
· Lost in a crowd, with
· The work they’ve been handed,
Thinking that it’s
A bigger job than they can handle. Here we’re shown that Saturday was to the disciples, a strange day, a day that their dream died, and they have to go on, but don’t know how. Worse, they didn’t know why.
But all these are the Saturday experiences” that we all feel, and that’s why we all need to get to Sunday. Because on Sunday, as C. S. Lewis said, “we’ll all be surprised by joy!”
Author: Plez Lovelady, Jr., PhD
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