Hi, I'm Christine Van Nada. I'm on staff at Riverview Church and I serve at the MSU Venue.
I'm glad you could join us as we walk through the days leading up to Jesus' resurrection.
Today is Saturday, and what little we know about this day from the Gospels is in Matthew 27:62-65.
"The next day, which followed the preparation day, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said,
“Sir, we remember that while this deceiver was still alive he said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’
So give orders that the tomb be made secure until the third day.
Otherwise, his disciples may come, steal him, and tell the people, ‘He has been raised from the dead,’
and the last deception will be worse than the first.”
“You have a guard of soldiers,” Pilate told them. “Go and make it as secure as you know how.”
They went and secured the tomb by setting a seal on the stone and placing the guard."
So, the religious leaders had heard Jesus say repeatedly that He would rise again on the third day.
And they thought the disciples would conspire to trick the people and the disciples had also obviously heard those same words.
And were they conspiring to trick the people? Were they waiting in hope for Jesus to rise again on the third day?
Significantly they say nothing at all in their eye witness accounts about themselves on the third day.
There is no historical report of any of the 11 anywhere between Friday and Sunday.
There is one sentence that says the women who followed Jesus were resting on the Sabbath, and that's it.
It's like there was just nothing that they said, or did, or thought that day that they wanted to put into the record.
So we have to extrapolate between what we know of them before, and what we know of them after.
And doing that, we can assume that they spent the entire day in a state of fear,
and confusion, deep deep disappointment, grief, doubt, and outright disbelief.
They were apparently not looking and waiting for the fulfillment of Jesus' words.
So, it's heartbreaking really. They were His best friends, the ones who'd been with Him day and night for three years. His closest followers.
And just two days ago, they had promised, they had sworn that they were ready to follow Him into prison and even death.
And they meant it. They were sincere. They were really ready.
They showed this when the mob came with swords and clubs to arrest Jesus
and they must have thought this was it, this was when they're gonna charge with their leader into battle
and Peter jumps out with his sword and hacks away, and Jesus stops him.
And Jesus fixes the ear that Peter had managed to lop off, and then He just walks into the hands of the enemy.
And it wasn't until then that the disciples turned and ran. Peter followed from a distance.
He sat outside the wall all night and listened as his hero, the man at whose feet he had fallen in reverence and awe.
His hero appeared to be utterly powerless before the soldiers who spit on Him and mocked Him, beat Him, and utterly humiliated Him.
And that's what Peter wasn't ready for. That's when he denied that he had ever even met Jesus.
So, it's not like we can even say, well, we know what they didn't know, because they did know.
Jesus had made it very clear that He would be killed, rise on the third day.
And that knowledge didn't help them at all, they still utterly failed. But their failure did nothing to limit God's plan.
Jesus had already accomplished His sacrificial death for the sins of the world.
He was yet to rise to life to prove Himself victor over sin and death. But they knew it would happen, it just didn't help them too well.
So what did Jesus say to them when He came back? You know there's not a word of condemnation or questioning, or "where were you guys on Saturday?"
The first word He said when He stood in their midst was "peace."
"Peace be to you." And then He repeated it, He said, "Peace to you, and just as the Father has sent me, so I now send you."
So He gave them peace and He gave them His mission. He entrusted them from the first moment
with picking up where they left off back when they were ready to follow Him anywhere, and He gave them that opportunity again.
So, I don't know what challenges you face. I don't know if Covid-19 is a huge challenge for you right now,
or just a blip on the screen compared to the other challenges in your life.
I don't know if you've done victoriously, or if you've deeply disappointed yourself,
and the truth is, it doesn't stop Jesus' mission on earth whether you do well or don't do well.
And the truth is, He still invites you to be a part of His mission. It's not your work or your performance that's important.
The Apostle Paul wrote these words and I think all of the 11 could have agreed,
He wrote, "I thank my Lord Christ Jesus who has strengthened me because He considered me faithful, putting me into service."
So I want you to know today, whether you've done well, or poorly, or utterly failed,
if you're a follower of Jesus Christ, He considers you faithful, He gives you His strength, and He puts you into service.
He invited you into His mission on earth.
Thanks for joining us today! God bless you and we'll see you tomorrow on a glorious Easter morning!