I grew up attending services on Easter Friday and Christmas Day. In our family and church, regardless of what was planned for the rest of the day (or weekend), it was customary to put aside some time for remembering the events that had sparked a holiday - or Holy Day. However, such services are not usually held at these times at the church we now attend. And I miss them. Greatly.
There is something to be said for taking time out of our busy lives to remember significant events in the Christian calendar. And not just remember them in the sense that, "Oh yes, it's Easter Friday and this is the day Jesus died" but in consciously taking time to reflect, and contemplate, to read the Scriptures, and to pray.
Naturally on Easter Sunday we remember Jesus' death and resurrection at church but Easter Sunday services are, and rightfully so, celebration services. He is alive! We have reason to celebrate. It's hard to focus on those dark hours when we already know the end - or the beginning as it were.
Last night - for the first time in my memory - our church had a reflective Easter Friday Service and it was lovely. Son#2 and his wife put a lot of effort and thought into organising it and the attendance, for a holiday, was high. To take time out to contemplate the cross and crucifixion - the darkest hours in history - was important and also a blessing.
I almost feel as if we need a Saturday service, too. Because of our unique place in history, we know what happened on Sunday morning, but two thousand years ago the disciples and Jesus' friends and family were grieving, confused, and cowering in fear. I wonder if they met together and broke bread and remembered Jesus as He had told them to at the Last Supper or if their emotions were too overwhelming and raw to even remember His words.
They had lost a friend, a leader, a teacher, the One they thought was going to usher in a new kingdom, and it now looked as if the Jewish leaders had destroyed all their hopes and plans. This wasn't the way it was meant to happen, in their eyes. And the Jewish leaders, remembering what Jesus had said when He was on earth, were taking every precaution to ensure He stayed dead and buried.
As far as the disciples were concerned, it was over. Jesus' last words on the cross had said as much and, in their limited understanding, their collective world had come crashing down around them. What were they going to do next? And where would they go? If they had not been considered such insignificant members of society, they most likely would have been marked men.
But the Jewish leaders had quashed their leader and most likely expected the disciples to disperse and return to their ordinary occupations. Perhaps they even had a moment of two when they considered returning to fishing or tax-collecting and wondered how it would be after a three years' absence.
Taking some time to think about the time between the crucifixion and the resurrection helps us understand the emotions they must have felt when they learnt He was alive. They had been looking at it all wrong and suddenly all He had said while with them on earth now made sense.
They hadn't lost a friend or leader or teacher. No, they had gained something far greater: forgiveness for their sins and a promise that He would send His Holy Spirit to be their Comforter. It's no wonder that these eleven remaining disciples, ordinary men, were filled with boldness and able to go out and preach the message of Salvation throughout Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
Peter, who had denied Him three times in His time of need, now able to speak up boldly at the time of Pentecost. Jesus' brothers who had grown up alongside Him and had at first been skeptical of His ministry, now leaders and martyrs in the early Church. All the disciples, but John, purportedly martyred for the sake of His Name. The women at the cross, not deserting Him in His time of need, who were witnesses to His resurrection - we know so little of what happened after He rose again, but surely they, too, were changed. How could they not be? Perhaps, they simply continued to live their lives as before - and yet, not as before, but changed because of what they had witnessed and experienced, and thus becoming living examples of Christ's redeeming work in the lives of His people.
As we look forward to Easter Sunday and the celebration and joy of that day, may our hearts not be unchanged. Whether like Peter, or Jesus' brothers, or the women at the cross, may we see Him and experience the fullness of forgiveness of sins, and have the courage to live the life He has called us to.
On the next day, which followed the Day of Preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees gathered together to Pilate,
“Sir, we remember, while He was still alive, how that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise.’ Therefore command that the tomb be made secure until the third day, lest His disciples come by night and steal Him and say to the people, ‘He has risen from the dead.’ So the last deception will be worse than the first.”
Pilate said to them, “You have a guard; go your way, make it as secure as you know how.”
So they went and made the tomb secure, sealing the stone and setting the guard.
Matthew 27:62-68, NKJV
(Images from Free Bible Images contributed by LUMO Project.)
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