Jesus is buried ~
They [Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, John 19:38-42] laid him in a tomb cut in stone where no one had ever yet been laid.
It was the day of Preparation and the Sabbath was beginning. On the Sabbath they [the disciples] rested according to the commandment. Luke 23:54;56.
The only hint the bible gives as to what was now occurring in hearts and minds is from Luke’s Gospel recording of the two disciples on the Road to Emmaus, Luke 24:14, as they encounter Jesus on the road. Jesus asked what they were talking about and Cleapos replied, “Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified him, But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.”
Our expectations and interpretations of the words from the Lord give us opportunity to stumble, when and if, they do not occur as we have thought.
This ‘Saturday’ had to hold much reflection, disappointment, fear, doubt; all the natural dynamics we would face in the same type of perceived loss. While Jesus had told them he would rise from the dead, they have no frame of reference for this, other than perhaps what they’d heard of Lazarus.
Perhaps this is why Mary returned to the tomb, believing Jesus words, “I am the Resurrection and the Life, He who believes in me shall never die”. Not understanding, but still clinging to a hope, somehow, someway, He will rise again.
Isn’t that what we all face in the same type of situation, the challenge to continue believing what Jesus has said. Holding a hope that is fixed upon the reality that it is impossible for God to lie.
This hope holds us steady through our “Saturdays.” ‘This is why we labor and strive, because we have set our hope on the living God, who is the saviour of all people, and especially of those who believe’….1 Tm 4:40 NIV.