2-27-12<\/p>\n
Coming — The Most Awful Day in Mankind\u2019s History
\nThis is a Lenten message, but about the end of the Lenten Season, not the beginning. So many holy days \/ holidays are associated with the period before Easter, that some can lose their meaning, if not their significance. We can think of how Mardi Gras and various Carnivals around the world steal from the unique spirituality of the Lenten Season that begins on Ash Wednesday. And during Holy Week itself, yes, commercialism and carnality intrude, but mostly the immense implications of Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday, tend to eclipse the other days.<\/p>\n
We sometimes can benefit from looking at days on the church calendar that are less celebrated than others; and it is good to think about Christian days \u201cout of order.\u201d In fact it interrupts our appreciation of the fullness of God when we compartmentalize Christmas in the winter, Easter in the Spring \u2026 whoops, Palm Sunday comes first, let\u2019s keep things in order. Commemoration is beneficial, and I\u2019ll be the first to admit that I need reminders about some things; but we can let the calendar rule us, sometimes.<\/p>\n
Shouldn\u2019t we celebrate Christ\u2019s coming to earth, God condescending to become flesh and identify with humankind \u2013 and us better with Him \u2013 every day of the year? Not just Christmas day! And woe to us if we contemplate the fact of the Resurrection \u2013 an astonishing miracle, with its implications for all of Creation, and for each of us individually \u2013 more on Easter Sunday than every day, every minute, of our lives.<\/p>\n
In that context I have a thought about \u201cHoly Week,\u201d down at the other end of the Lenten Season. Palm Sunday we know about well, from the festive welcome Jesus received, and many re-creations we see. Some traditions observe Maundy Thursday and solemnly meditate on the sorrows of Jesus\u2019s last hours as a man. Christian churches open, and even the New York Stock Exchange closes, to observe Good Friday. Easter, of course: it is central to believers\u2019 faith; it is when families get together; it is when \u201cChreasters\u201d (people who attend church on Christmas and Easter) come out to see their shadows, thank God.<\/p>\n
But except for ancient traditions and very liturgical and Orthodox churches, and even then never to the degrees accorded other holy days, the day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday receives scant focus. \u201cHoly Saturday\u201d is the only name it has, and some ancient rites would hold services in stark settings, and exercise fasting, on the day.<\/p>\n
It deserves a major portion of our attention.<\/p>\n
Many theologians divide history in half: all of Creation and humankind before Jesus; then the Incarnation and redemption of the world after the Resurrection. Mankind was under the curse of the Law until His death on the cross; and, the Bible tells us \u2013 Jesus Himself told us \u2013 after the Resurrection, life is in Him. It is the message written on every page of scripture\u2026 numerous prophecies and prefiguring and foreshadows in the Old Testament, pointing to Christ. The Scarlet Thread of Redemption. And now we are heirs to numerous promises about Eternity.<\/p>\n
Glorious! Yet\u2026 there was one day in history when humanity must have felt utterly alone. Multitudes had heard Jesus\u2019s teachings. Many did not understand. Some did. But everyone in Jerusalem \u2013 haters and scholars, followers and family \u2013 all knew one thing that Saturday.<\/p>\n
Jesus was gone. He died. There were many witnesses. It was official. He was prepared for burial in the usual way, wrapped and buried. The earth was dark, Jerusalem was silent. Those who followed His ministry faced His absence. Those who knew Him best, even His mother, confronted the void. The Bible\u2019s accounts tell us that nobody remembered, or believed any more, the scripture\u2019s prophecies, or His promises.<\/p>\n
You and I know what happened the next day. But we would not have known on that Saturday: no one did.<\/p>\n
Was that Saturday not just the most awful day in His followers\u2019 hearts, but in mankind\u2019s history? Literally and figuratively, Jesus was removed from our midst on that day. People whose faith had sustained them\u2026 were shaken. People who had witnessed miracles, who had experienced miracles\u2026 prayed vainly for another. He had comforted the little children, and the widows, and the orphans, and the sick, and the needy, and the outcasts, and the sinners\u2026 would they be comforted no more? \u201cI have come that you might have life\u201d\u2026 was His life over? \u201cI will be with you always,\u201d the promise that would be spoken later but surely was a message of His entire ministry\u2026 was it a lie?<\/p>\n
The nearest I can imagine to the feelings in people\u2019s hearts that Saturday is what I have read about \u201cterminal\u201d feelings of being alone, truly alone. People who have survived suicide attempts, for instance, often confess to an extreme, aching sense of \u201caloneness,\u201d not normal loneliness or isolation, of being aware that there are no helpers, no friends to call upon. Sometimes people are not aware of God\u2019s presence; they call out but cannot hear an answer in their distress. \u201cCold\u201d is the word most often used with \u201calone.\u201d <\/p>\n
Surely this feeling, deeper than deep in the soul, is the most awful emotion anyone can feel. Disappointment, failure, defeat, betrayal, standard tragedies, cannot come close. They are not AS close to our core.<\/p>\n
And this is the feeling that Jesus’s family and followers must have felt that Saturday we look forward to in a few weeks; before He revealed Himself, and all Truth, to them. Indeed, all Creation felt that feeling on that day. Thank God that humankind has never had another such day, before or since. <\/p>\n
Is there a benefit in this morose contemplation? I don\u2019t believe it is morose; it is all in God\u2019s plan. How much greater does the glory of Easter seem? How much more can we appreciate the presence of a Living Savior in our lives? How sweeter is the Christian walk if we remind ourselves of the horror of being alone\u2026 but instead, having a Friend who not only overcame death, but takes our hand to lead us to places where we will never be alone!<\/p>\n
+ + +<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s not a thing in this world that\u2019s worse than being alone\u2026 Take my hand, let me stand\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n