The Final Week of Jesus' Life: An 8-Day Holy Week Devotional SeriesНамуна

Silence - The Despair of Disappointment

The morning after the crucifixion. Saturday. The disciples and followers of Jesus must have felt beyond exhausted, numbed with sorrow and devastating disappointment. What did it all mean? Wasn’t Jesus going to restore the kingdom of Israel? Wasn’t he going to right all the wrongs that had been done to his people?

Saturday was the Jewish Sabbath, the day of rest from weekly labors. The life of Jesus was over, they thought. When we experience grief or a tragedy, we often relive it repeatedly in our minds, turning it over and over, searching for meaning. Jesus’ followers must have been haunted by the memory of Jesus’ suffering, his words at their Passover, their failure to pray with him in the Garden, his arrest, trial, their abandoning him, and his agonizing death. Pilate had posted guards, lest someone come and attempt to steal his body from the tomb. The two Marys stayed faithfully with Jesus’ body, waiting at a distance, as Joseph and Nicodemus quickly prepared his corpse for burial, according to Jewish law.

The thoughts and feelings of Jesus’ many followers must have paralleled those later spoken by a couple on the Road to Emmaus as they conversed with their unrecognized visitor—the risen Christ: “We had so hoped he was the one…” (Luke 24:13–27). Their tone was doubtless wistful, pained with disappointment and sorrow. The death of such a glorious dream was not an easy one to endure.

Reflect on these words today, which so profoundly express our heart’s cry—what can we do except willingly give our life to Him?

“Alas, and did my Savior bleed, and did my Sovereign die?

Would He devote that sacred Head for a sinner such as I?

Was it for sins that I have done, He suffered on the tree? Amazing pity! Grace unknown!

And love beyond degree!

But drops of grief can ne’er repay the debt of love I owe

Here, Lord, I give myself away,

It’s all that I can do.

Prayer for Today: Lord, in the silence of Holy Saturday, I bow my head in acknowledgment of the great price you have paid for salvation. Help me to meditate today on your story, especially as I have seen It unfold in the Gospels this week. Show me how to best respond to your love as I try to grasp all you have done for me. Amen.

Photo credit: Adobe, Sean Pavone /stock.adobe.com used with permission