The Space Between: A Place for Hope and Creativity

Today is Holy Saturday.

Known around the world also as the Great Sabbath, Black Saturday, Joyous Saturday, and Hallelujah Saturday, it is a day that stands out because so little is written about it and because of what must have happened on this day for Jesus’ disciples. 

Scripturally, we know very little of this day as none of the Gospel writers record any of the events of this day, nothing about what Jesus’ disciples did, or how they felt now that their beloved Rabbi was killed.  There must have been a great deal of heaviness and hopelessness in today. 

One can imagine that the disciples felt hopeless because they had followed this Man from Nazareth for three years, giving Him precious time from their lives that they couldn’t get back.  Hopeless because they had promised, like Peter, to be with Him to the end and actually betrayed Him in a moment of panic.  Hopeless because they had expected so much more of Him, looking to Him to maybe somehow bring back the kingdom and allow Israel to be great once more. 

And now, He was dead.

Jesus of Nazareth had been mocked. 

Ridiculed.  Harrassed.  Spat on. 

And did nothing. 

He didn’t even open His mouth.  It was like he was a sheep before its shearers.  Silent.  And yet….  And yet, there must have been a flicker of hope within the disciples that day.  It couldn’t have been over yet.  Didn’t Jesus say something about His kingdom not being of this world…not like the kingdoms around Him? 

Could it be that, perhaps, Yahweh, in the midst of Him still being true, still being strong, still being alive, still sitting on the throne, could do—was in fact doing—something in this disorienting time?    Might the Holy Spirit have helped the disciples recall Isaiah’s words about the Messiah, a quiet reminder of the truth of this moment when he said:

His soul is made a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand. After the anguish of His soul, 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. Therefore I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the spoils with the strong, because He has poured out His life unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors (Isaiah 53:11-13). 

It is fitting that today is called the Great Sabbath.  Sabbath, that day of rest at the end of a major work, initially shown to us by God the Father in Genesis 2:2, was a place where God in fact “rested from all his works.”  It was a pause to reflect on what had been done previously, to look back and see what was “very good,” and–with hope—look to the future because things were indeed good. 

Sabbath sometimes comes between a major work, a much-needed and forced rest as something is still going on.  And so, it is fitting that in this year’s particular ending of Lent and beginning of Eastertide, the world finds itself in a place of Sabbath resting, of waiting, of self-isolation.  The coronavirus pandemic of 2020 has required all of the world’s inhabitants be engaged in a type of waiting none of us have ever seen in our lifetimes. 

Could it be that you and I, in our own Great Sabbath, are being called to trust that God is doing something greater than us in our own midst? 

Could it be that you and I, in our own times of feeling frustrated, afraid, abandoned, and let down are being called to trust a God Who is known for doing exceedingly abundant and unbelievably crazy things in places where there just doesn’t seem to be any possibility? 

Could it be that you and I, in our own pauses from the normalcy of the day-to-day of our lives, are being called to stop and look more intently into the face of a God who loves us, who calls us His own and knows everything about us?

I wonder what how the Lord might ask us to view Him so that we actually see and recognize that resurrection power He uses in every action?  How might He be calling us to let down our own net and allow Him to add to our resources, to do what He wants during this time—in you, with you, through you?  I wonder who in our communities needs to hear of the Good News Jesus brings us because of His actions during Holy Week? 

As we celebrate the hope that comes from this time of Holy Week, our prayer for you during this time has been (and will continue to be!) that you are able to more readily grasp and discern what God is calling you to in this time of coronavirus and that you would have the ability to creatively go and do it. 

May God’s grace and peace be with you and your family in this unprecedented time.