Before the Cross – Easter Devotion 20

Saturday Disciples

For some reason that escaped me in seminary lectures, the church never named the Saturday before Easter. I have thought of several names we might use: “Sad”urday. “Dark” Saturday. “Pause” Day. It was a day of sorrow. Of grief. Of loss. It was a day in which the Gospel story seems to have pushed “pause.” Perhaps “Hopeless Saturday” would fit.

Those names would certainly have fit the demeanor of the disciples who met Jesus on the Emmaus Road on the first Easter Sunday. When asked by the resurrected Lord what they were discussing along the way, they shared their disappointment and loss at the crucifixion of Jesus and said, “We had hoped He (Jesus… the One they were talking to!!) was going to be the one who redeemed Israel.” Hope was lost for these disciples.

But in reality… hope had dawned. They just didn’t know it yet! So Jesus took them patiently and taught them the Scriptures and suddenly their eyes were opened: They recognized Him and just as suddenly, their hope was resurrected.

“Saturday disciples,” one writer called them. And maybe as you read this, that’s you. Your hope may be crushed. Your life may be sad. Your dreams may be diminished. Perhaps it feels as though God has pushed “pause” on your future.

If that is you, it would be my prayer that you do two things:

First, TAKE GOD’S WORD AND TAKE IT SERIOUSLY. Your hope will revive as God’s truth replenishes you. When Jesus wanted these men to find hope, He didn’t talk to them about how they felt. He told them the truth!

Second, OPEN YOUR EYES TO THE SAVIOR. He is present! He has promised, “I will never leave you… I will never forsake you.” He walks with you today in as personal and as powerful a way as He did with those early, hopeless “Saturday” disciples. Sometimes sorrow blinds us to that reality.

In the “not yet” valley between crucifixion and resurrection? The pain has come, but the resolution has not yet been revealed? I pray that God will open your eyes that you may see, as the disciples on the Emmaus Road, the Christ who is now with you!

 

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