Holy Saturday - Day 2

It's Holy Saturday. Day 2. Do you know where Jesus is?Sounds like the beginning of a bad advertisement with the answer waiting somewhere just around the corner, yet it is a legitimate question. Do you know where Jesus is?

The disciples knew where Jesus was. As far as the disciples were concerned, Jesus was dead and lying in a tomb, His body waiting for tomorrow when the women and the disciples would be able to appropriately tend to it. Yet, for today, the disciples were hiding away, afraid of the Jews, afraid of the Romans, afraid of their own fear. Jesus is dead. He isn't going anywhere.

Hmmmm. Funny, how God takes lemons and makes lemonade, how God takes fear and turns it into joy, how God takes death and turns it into life. But, I'm getting ahead of myself. It is so easy to slip into the 'post-resurrection' mode and just wait for what we know will happen . . . . just as the disciples thought they knew then what would happen. It's Holy Saturday. Day 2. Do you know where Jesus is?

New life, Easter life, is not ours to claim as an expected entitlement. New life, Easter life, is God's to grant. We already know that God is a God of great surprises, just ask the shepherds around Bethlehem, or Lazarus, or the ten lepers, or the man with the withered arm, or even Pilate. "What is truth?", Pilate asks. God is about to amaze creation with a truth I'm not sure that we can stand, even today. It is far easier to prepare for an Easter weekend party or worship service, than to prepare to be faithful to God in mindful waiting as we view the truth of Day 2, Holy Saturday, starkly present before us.

I pray for you a blessed and joyous Easter, filled with amazement, not smug in your own cleverness for having figured it out based on the experiences of others, but the kind of amazement that makes you sing for joy with angels above and saints below. I pray for you a blessed and joyous Easter . . . because you are coming to understand what Day 2 is all about.