It is so easy for those who know the joyful end of the story to mentally and emotionally jump right from Good Friday to Easter Morning. Yet for a moment let’s remember what the day between must have been for Jesus’s friends and followers:
Bereft and horrified beyond imagining.
In terror for their very lives.
Yet faithfully observing the Sabbath despite their grief.
Hopeless.
Helpless.
Engulfed in darkness of heart, mind and soul.
Is this what they felt?
Then they will look at the earth. They’ll see nothing but suffering and darkness.
They’ll see terrible sadness. They’ll be driven into total darkness.
Isaiah 8:22 New International Reader’s Version
Is this what they thought?
So justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us.
We look for light, but all is darkness; for brightness, but we walk in deep shadows.
Isaiah 59:9 New International Version
Was it really all over? Was Hope gone forever? We know the answer; they did not. But the promise was always there:
The people who walk in darkness shall see a great Light—
a Light that will shine on all those who live in the land of the shadow of death.
Isaiah 9:2 Living Bible
Because,
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.
John 1:5 New Living Translation
And,
He said, I am the Light of the world. He who follows Me will not be walking in the dark,
but will have the Light which is Life.
John 8:12 Amplified Bible, Classic Edition
The Light can never be extinguished in us either:
For you are all children of the light and children of the day.
We don’t belong to the night nor to darkness.
1 Thessalonians 5:5 The Passion Translation
So,
Arise! Shine, for your light has come, the glory of the Lord has dawned upon you.
Though darkness covers the earth, and thick clouds, the peoples,
Upon you the Lord will dawn, and over you his glory will be seen.
Isaiah 60:1-2 New American Bible (Revised Edition)
