The In Between (Holy Week)

April 11th, 2020 | Steve Ferguson

Saturday


Have you ever had a dream? Something you worked for, strived for, longed for, sacrificed for? Have you ever lost that? Had it slip away, get crushed, evaporate in front of you? Have you ever found yourself in a place where all you felt was disappointment, confusion, even anger?


Friday was an unbelievablly dense day. We saw how it goes from the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus' arrest, then the trial with the Sanhedrin, then He's before Pilate, then there's the crucifixion. It's so dense.


Then Sunday is this amazing day when the stone gets rolled away and this man comes back to life. Nobody saw Sunday coming. Actually, the world has still never really recovered from what happened on Sunday.


BUT - This isn't Sunday. This isn't Friday. This is Saturday. The day after this but the day before that. The day after a prayer gets prayed but before it gets answered. The day after a soul gets crushed way down but before it gets all lifted up. This kind of strange day, Saturday. It's the in-between day. Not Friday. Not Sunday. In between despair and joy. In between utter confusion and blinding clarity. In between bad news and good news. In between darkness and light. In between hate and love. In between death and life. It's the in-between day. Saturday, the day of silence.


On Saturday, in addition to the pain of Friday, there is the pain of silence and absence of God.

Friday there is trouble. Sunday there is deliverance. Saturday there is nothing!


The in-between day! The day of silence. The day of self-quarantine. There was no light at the end of the tunnel. The most hopeless day in history.


Why? Because the disciples…all the disciples…missed the message that Jesus taught 5 different times. They missed the message that there would be a resurrection.


John 20:9


What is happening bec hind that self-quarantined locked door. Their thoughts…

What went wrong?

Did Jesus fail?


1 Corinthians 15:3-4


On Friday our sins get paid for. On Easter Sunday our hope is brought to life. Saturday is the day with no name, the day when nothing happened.


What is so interesting about Saturday…we all go through Saturdays in our lives before we get to Sunday. Don’t we? Day of darkness before the incredible light. But we can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel.


On Saturday we can choose despair or denial…or we can choose to wait. And there is nothing harder to do than wait when you are in the midst of a Saturday.


Do you know what the miracle of Saturday is…it is that God lays dead in a tomb.  God defeated our great enemy death, not by proclaiming His invincibility over it, but by submitting to it.


So whatever your pain, whatever your rejection, whatever dream has died, whatever longing has not been fulfilled, whatever your failure, whatever your regret, whatever your shame, whatever your disappointment, it is not the end. It's only Saturday and deliverance is coming. So don't you give up. Don't you despair. Don't you waver. Don't give in. Don't quit. Don't tank. Whatever you do, don't miss next week because next week is the climax of the whole deal:  It’s Saturday, but Sunday is coming!