The waiting
Luke 23:26 – Chapter 24
But what happened on Saturday?
Thursday night into Friday (one day by the Jewish sundown-sundown reckoning) was intense. The last supper. The betrayal. The show trials. Mocking. Crucifixion. Death. The tearing of the curtain in the temple.
And finally the rest of burial, when Jesus was hurriedly placed in a borrowed tomb before the Sabbath began Friday evening.
We know the events of Sunday: Finding the empty tomb; fear and confusion that will turn to joy.
But what about Saturday?
Even today we don’t quite know what to do with the Saturday between crucifixion and resurrection, between Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
It’s really one of the hardest days. The day of waiting.
With all that’s going on, it’s easy to miss the only real description of the day in 23:55-56. “The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph [the owner of the tomb] and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.”
Can you imagine the effort it took for them to do nothing?
We remember the story of Mary and Martha, where one sister is unable to stay still and spend time with Jesus because she is so focused on the busyness of life. If ever there were a Martha moment, this is it.
These women’s world is crashing around them and every instinct is to stay busy and to prepare the body of Jesus for a proper, respectful burial. And yet, “they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.”
We can forget while we’re looking for what Jesus calls us to do that sometimes he calls us to NOT do. Sometimes we have to wait.