36. The Gift of Love
Saturday 30th March
(for more details see here)
Pause:
This time last year I wrote this prayer for holy week:
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A final resting place - a borrowed tomb - a gift of love.
And another prophecy fulfilled:
"He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in His death,
though He had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in His mouth."
ISAIAH 53.9
Though the disciples grief is blinding them to it - God's plan of salvation is unfolding exactly as promised - down to the very last detail. A new tomb in which no-one had yet been laid... in a garden: the luxury of the rich.
The One of whom the bible says heaven itself cannot contain - whose glory fills the whole earth - is bound in burial cloths and buried in a tomb.
But God's plan is not over yet... Isaiah goes on to tell us:
"After He has suffered,
He will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by His knowledge my Righteous Servant will justify many,
and He will bear their iniquities."
ISAIAH 53. 11
The one assigned to the grave, and buried with the rich in His death... will "see the light of life"!
But not yet.
Today, we wait...
"The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate.
“Sir,” they said, “we remember that while He was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’
So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day.
Otherwise, His disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that He has been raised from the dead.
This last deception will be worse than the first.”
“Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.”
So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard."
MATTHEW 27. 62-66
Are you following this?
Jesus has been laid in a tomb, by a huge boulder rolled over the entrance...
Now Pilate has again given into pressure from the Chief Priests and has sealed the stone with his own signet ring, and a garrison of soldiers has been posted it guard it.
Is it just me who wonders whether God was arranging the pieces on the board as carefully as possible so that the empty tomb would cause wonder and amazement down throughout history?
But for now, the tomb is not empty.
Not yet.
Today, we wait...
Reflection:
After Good Friday comes what it often called Black Saturday.
The day of mourning, the day of weeping, the day of waiting.
The Gospel writers tell us precisely nothing about what happened that Sabbath - precisely because... nothing happened.
Jesus had been humiliated, ridiculed, scorned.
Worse - tried, condemned, tortured, crucified.
Dead and buried.
And with Him all their hopes and reams.
Black Saturday...
We may not have used that phrase - but we've all known those "Black" days...
Uncertainty
Loss
Pain
Fear
Grief
The truth is it can often feel like we live in a Black Saturday world.
Wars that rage on and on
Unending injustice
Minorities oppressed
Unjust governments
Corrupt powers
It can so often feel like nothing is ever going to change, and that hope is a childish notion in the real world of struggle and pain.
But... we know darkness will not have the final word - the "light of life" is waiting to come flooding in...
Hope will over despair
Love will triumph over hate
Light will breakthrough the darkness
And how do we know this?
Because we've stood here before - on Black Saturday...
And we know that even here - God's plan is not over yet.
The sun will rise and The Son will rise
Sunday is coming...
But not yet.
Today, we wait.
Question for today:
-
What helps you to hold onto hope in the waiting?
Prayer:
I prayed this.
My prayer for today: (if you would like to, please feel free to add your own prayer here):