Joseph of ArimatheaSample

Silence 

He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away.  - Matthew 27:60, NIV 

There is a divine pause. The feverish activity of the week has gone. This is the end. This is silent Saturday. But Joseph did not see the divine pause. What he saw was the pointlessness. Joseph had hoped, together with so many others, that Jesus would be the final revelation of the Messiah. And now he grieves as he holds in his arms the lifeless, blood-spoiled body. The pointlessness of the whole exercise must have overwhelmed him. Joseph was not only grieving Jesus as a beloved leader, but he was also grieving his loss of faith. Though he surely was experiencing disappointment, confusion, and grief, I wonder if there was still a spark of hope inside him? In the silence of that Saturday, I wonder if there was just a hint from within Joseph of Arimathea that perhaps this really was the Messiah? 

We don’t know a lot about this day. All we know is this: Saturday was silent. The day between the struggle and the solution, the question and the answer. The Passover activities had ceased and the Sabbath had begun. It was dark. Everyone was still. And God seemed silent. 

Saturday’s silence torments us. Why the heartache of the pointlessness of life? Why did God not move swiftly to raise Him from the dead? 

There are times in the life of every Christian when it appears that we carry the dead weight of our unrealized expectations, our unanswered prayers. When we experience God’s silence in our lives, in our homes, in our churches, in our cities and countries, there is no flicker of hope as we nurse the disappointment. It is this silent Saturday that becomes the hallmark of the true Christian disciple. 

And yet, through this longing, we learn something. We are always with Him. In this in-between stage—in the liminality, we are silent with Him. It is an act of faith to believe that He speaks even when we don’t hear Him. That He is there even when we don’t see Him. That He is alive, even when He appears to be dead. That it is the beginning even though it looks like the end. 

In trusting Him and waiting on Him, you will hear Him speak in the silence. As with Christ, you can endure the silence of Saturday. His inactivity is not apathy. It is in the silence that Christ speaks, and Christ will show Himself strong. Jesus will not leave us in our silent Saturdays.