Concession after the Cross
And on the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.
(Luke 23:56b NASB)
Death had won again. It’s hard to concede defeat, even harder if it has been suffered by the death of your hope. Jesus had become the earthly hope of a lot of people, and when He was crucified and died on the cross, earth bound hope just folded. That’s the tragic disappointment of not having the right belief in Jesus even today. He was not sent here as an earthly life enhancing manager.
It’s Saturday the Sabbath Day, the day of rest. Folks were by Mosaic Law, to be resting in adherence of the Third Commandment, “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. (Exodus 20:8 NASB) Many may have been resting physically perhaps, but today, not emotionally. Minds were racing trying to catch up with the events of the day before. Even the Pharisees were still worried after His death. Scriptures only mention of Saturday is the meeting that took place between the Pharisees and Pilate. They are asking that a guard be placed at the tomb of Jesus to keep overzealous followers of Him from pulling some kind of shenanigans to falsely validate His previous ridiculous boast that He would rise again on the third day.
It’s quiet in Jerusalem. We have to assume that there are homes of people quietly mourning the death of Jesus. There are people with a lot of questions going through their minds; questions that don’t seem to have any answers today.
How could someone who was so kind to so many, even to one of those arresting Him be so cruelly treated and murdered on a cross?
How could that twelve year old boy who knew so much of Scripture in the temple with the elders, be so repulsed by them as a 30+ year old? What or who changed?
How could someone promise to be our king one day the next and be dead?
How could one who claimed to be our Savior, our Messiah be such if He Himself was killed by Roman soldiers?
How come this one who called us to, “Come follow Me”, expect us to follow after a dead man? Where’s the sense in that?
How could a man who had the power to raise people like Lazarus from the dead allow Himself to enter death? Where’s the consistency?
How could a man promise another dying man, “Truly, I say to you, today you shall be with Me in paradise.”? Was He just trying to comfort that thief in his pain or was it a cruel joke or something else?
How are we going to be able to prepare an already decomposing body for proper burial so long after death?
The answers to these questions and more would have to wait for another day which was not far away. The questions would be lost in His glory. Sort of like our earthly questions we have planned for heaven will, I suspect, be lost in His glory. This Saturday was a day of grief. Rest would not be a good word to describe Jerusalem.
The world is an unhappy place to be without a living Jesus in it, so too human life. Life without a living Jesus isn’t life at all. It’s just an existence, often filled with grief, missing meaning, empty of purpose, and filled with questions. Our hearts when apart from Christ feel this at times. We don’t know what it is, but we just know life seems dead and meaningless. We wish we could do something about it. We don’t have to – God already has.
Tomorrow literally will be a better day, it couldn’t get any worse than this…Jesus is gone.
