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Day 40 - Between Death and Resurrection

Saturday is the final day of Lent.  Forty days have passed and we’ve sojourned through Lent to arrive at the day it ends.  It is the day between Christ’s death and His Resurrection.

It is a Silent day – Silent Saturday.

The Gospels say little about Saturday.  The death of Jesus on the cross occurs right before the beginning of the Sabbath;  so the burial is done quickly, with a view that the final things will have to be done on the first day of the week – Sunday.

John 19:38-42
38  After these things Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his body.
39  Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight.
40  So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews.
41  Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid.
42  So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.

The disciples retreated after the events of the cross.  They were in hiding out of fear that they would be hunted down by the Jewish authorities, or the Romans.  
It was two “quiet disciples” – Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus – who took the body of Jesus to the tomb where he lay.
The Romans and the Jewish leaders moved to make sure Jesus “stayed” in the tomb. 

Matthew 27:62-66
62  The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate
63  and said, “Sir, we remember how that impostor said, while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise.’
64  Therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’ and the last fraud will be worse than the first.”
65  Pilate said to them, “You have a guard of soldiers. Go, make it as secure as you can.”
66  So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard.

The tomb was sealed and the guards were posted out of fear that the disciples would come and take his body away. 

It was Saturday…the day is Silent.

Life is made up of many deaths that must be followed by resurrections.

Die to Self…to discover Christ’s life.
Die to dreams…
Die to ambitions…
Die to lost opportunities…
Die to expectations and dreams unfulfilled…
Die to “I thought”…
Die to …. (fill it in)…

After deaths there are many silent Saturdays.

BUT, remember this, after deaths…while we wait in Silent Saturdays…there are many resurrections.

Hebrews 11:1  Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

Have faith my friends…Sunday is a’coming!


Peace

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