Saturday, April 4, 2015

THE HOLY SEASON -- DAY 8

 





Saturday - Before the Resurrection


...my eyes are dim with grief.
I call to you, O LORD, every day;
I spread out my hands to you...
Do you show your wonders to the dead?
Do those who are dead rise up and praise you?
Is your love declared in the grave, your faithfulness in Destruction?
Are your wonders known in the place of darkness, or your righteous deeds in the land of oblivion?

But I cry to you for help, O LORD;
In the morning my prayer comes before you.
                                                                                                      Psalm 88: 9-13 (NLV)

Followers of Jesus often shed many tears by the end of Holy Friday.  Through scripture, passion dramas, and sermons, we've experienced the death of God's example of mankind perfected--his Son, our Christ Jesus.  Alas, today our journey hasn't yet brought us to the resurrection.

Read the scripture above as though you were one of the heartbroken apostles, or his mother or one of the crowd of faithful followers on the day after Jesus died.  They couldn't grasp the truth that the story wasn't over.  Feel their intense pain of loss, fear, and even anger that Jesus is simply GONE!

We've never lived in a world where Christ is absent, but we can imagine a fraction of such bleakness, because:
           we have lost cherished ones...
                         we've been diminished and left to feel powerless...
                                                we've felt unloved, and have forgotten to love.

Do we pray with such honest passion as the psalmist?  Being aware of the Resurrection, do we trust that tomorrow we will be able to see and know that God's Love is here for us through all eternity?

Prayer

Dear Lord,
We are blessed by our bond with these heartbroken disciples, for we've suffered grief and anger over losses and betrayals.  Increase our patience when we cry out to you, unable to summon up visions of the glorious victories that lie ahead.  When we travel through days of darkness, help us use the emptiness as a space and time to seek, to heal.  Remind us of Easter morning.
                                                                                                Amen


No comments:

Post a Comment