Saturday - Silence

⁵⁷ When it was evening, a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph came, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus. ⁵⁸ He approached Pilate and asked for Jesus’s body. Then Pilate ordered that it be released. ⁵⁹ So Joseph took the body, wrapped it in clean, fine linen, ⁶⁰ and placed it in his new tomb, which he had cut into the rock. He left after rolling a great stone against the entrance of the tomb. ⁶¹ Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were seated there, facing the tomb.
Matthew 27:57–61 (CSB)

Today we take a step back and survey our week of lament and longing. We’ve taken a journey looking out over the vast horizon of the world and its nations all the way down to local communities and came face to face with the brokenness within our own hearts. Lament is uncomfortable, yet good. Lament is intertwined with longing. It points us to that for which our hearts are longing. We lament for all that which is wrong and long for it to be put right.

Indeed the earliest disciples of Jesus had a week of lament that first Easter. As Jesus gave up his life at the cross and was placed in a tomb, hopes were dashed. Hopeful expectation began to fade like the closing hours of light each evening. The life and joy of summer quickly turned into the harsh realities of a dreary winter as Jesus body lay in the grave three days.

Perhaps this week, you feel something of what those early disciples felt: discouragement, questions, longings, fading hopes, confusions, sadness and shame. Don’t lose heart. Sit in the lament and longing just a little while longer. They didn’t know it at the time, but a bright light is on the horizon. The new life of spring is about to burst forth into the hearts of men and women and youth and children. The incomprehensible power of God is about to be on display. It won’t come in the way they hoped or expected….it will be far bigger, far better than what they could have hoped for or imagined. A new day is about to dawn…for tomorrow, we will sing a new song.

Reflection Questions:
Do you feel as though you’re too weak to hope? Do you feel like whatever hope remains is but a flicker, a fire gone out, a smoldering candle? We too can discover, as the early disciples did, that God is full of surprises. As we reflect on our week of lament and longing, our hearts are ready for a surprising hope to break into our world. Easter hope. Hope of resurrection life.

Prayer:
Take a moment and talk to God about these things. As you pray, consider Isaiah 42:1-9.