A Day of Waiting

Today is what is known in the universal church as “Holy Saturday.” It is the day that comes “in between”: we have commemorated Jesus’s death on the cross for our sins on Good Friday, but are still waiting to celebrate His resurrection from the dead on Easter Sunday. We know that Christ’s work on the cross is done. When He said, “It is finished!” (John 19:31), Jesus had done all that He needed to do to redeem us. He had taken our sin and given us His righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21), declaring His victory over sin. For Jesus’s disciples, however, the power of death still looked overwhelming. The body of Jesus lay in the tomb. And while God fully knew what was coming, Jesus’s followers lived—for a day—without understanding the hope that was already being fulfilled. For one day, they would wait to see that the grave no longer had its victory and death no longer had its sting (1 Corinthians 15:55).

For us, we know the reality of the resurrection—that death and hell were defeated as the Son of God rose in glory. But we also know what it means to wait. We still live in on this side of our own resurrection. Our lives belong to Jesus, but our bodies are still vulnerable to the challenges of this world. Especially in this time, when the entire world is waiting for the danger of COVID-19 to pass, we don’t know what tomorrow looks like. That can be discouraging. But, while we don’t know what the specifics of our earthly tomorrow look like, we do know what our eventual tomorrow in Christ looks like—an eternity forever with Him, reigning with Him over a new heavens and a new earth (2 Timothy 2:11-12). So we don’t wait like the world waits, with our hope tied up in this pandemic passing. Instead, we wait as God’s people have always waited: with hope:

I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living!

Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!

--Psalm 27:13-14 (ESV)

As we wait until tomorrow to celebrate His rising in these difficult times…and wait to celebrate Him together as one again at some point in the future, let us do so with strength, with courage, and with hope. Jesus has overcome everything for us. In Him, we have already overcome as well.