Day 65 - Issue 24
Matthew 27:59-60a NLT
'Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a long sheet of clean linen cloth. He placed it in his own new tomb, which had been carved out of the rock.'
Good Friday is the day the world is silenced. Jesus is crucified and the voice of God goes quiet. Many assume this is the conclusion of Jesus’ ministry. Now Joseph of Arimathea places Jesus in a tomb he has purchased for himself. It is his final act of respect for someone he followed at a distance. As the small funeral party leave, they are replaced by an armed guard. Darkness falls and night envelops the world.
Unable to sleep in the night, our mind can trawl through the worst of our fears as our perspective disappears. We look to Jesus, yet it seems he has been entombed. We wait for dawn, the time when the angels will remove the stone and we shall discover Christ is indeed raised.
I can’t imagine the depths of sadness and fear the disciples experienced that Friday. They had no knowledge of the resurrection. All they knew was the years they had invested in following Jesus in the hope he was the promised Messiah. Was this wasted time? Had they been duped and now had to live with the shame of their stupidity? I see many today who have walked with Jesus who now feel they have equally been duped and their erstwhile saviour is once again entombed in a grave. They rationalise their past as a search for wholeness or youthful idealism. Night crushes their hopes of a risen Christ. This was the state of those first disciples; yet remember Sunday’s coming.
QUESTION: Are you tempted to question the reality of the risen Christ?
PRAYER: Lord, for the doubting and the confused, may the light of your love dawn over them.
