How did Jesus' followers feel on that wretched saturday? Stunned. Shocked. Despairing and defeated. Confused. Fearful. Perhaps even a bit betrayed by who they thought the Lord Jesus was--betrayed by the seemingly infinite distance between their expectations and their cold, cruel reality. They had witnessed the One they loved and followed and obeyed (as best they could) horrifically crucified. They had seen His battered, bloody body placed in a tomb, and when that stone was rolled across, it was if all their hopes and dreams and purpose in life were entombed in that ultimate defeat and shocking death.
It is so hard to see a dream die. It is so painful to suffer the destruction of hope. It is so terrible to hit an immovable wall, knowing there is no other alternative.
Added to their despair and shock, the disciples lived that day in between with the knowledge that they had betrayed Him, failed Him and fled. Couldn't they remember the times He had calmed the raging waves of the sea and brought them safely to shore? Couldn't they remember the times He had taken a couple of loaves of bread and a few tiny fish and fed multitudes of people? Couldn't they remember the time He had walked on the water or raised the disconsolate widow's son from the dead or turned the water into the finest of wine at the wedding feast in Cana?
Couldn't they remember His gentle smile, His infectious laugh, His tender hands, His strong arms, His compassionate tears, His piercing words? Couldn't they remember His promises and warnings and commands?
Cannot we? Funny how whenever we hit a wall in life, we tend to be mighty quick forgetters. Instead of recalling the Lord's faithfulness to us in the past, we panic and respond out of fear. Instead of focusing on who the Lord is and what He has done, we focus on our insurmountable problems and our pain. Instead of praising and trusting Him who is ever faithful, we complain and despair, feeling frustrated and bitter.
The disciples had hit the wall of the day in between. All had fled. All were in hiding. All had lost hope. All suffered from the guilt and shame of their failures and wondered if there was anything they could have done to have prevented this catastrophic disaster.
O, but we know the end of the story, don't we?! We know, in the words of Peter Marshall, that "Within a matter of hours, Christ Himself was to become the instrument by which the Father would--for all time--make death not a wall... but a door." Don't you just want to shout to the utterly devastated Peter, "Don't give up! Just as He promised, you will one day strengthen your brothers and become the Rock upon which the church is founded!" Don't you want to grab those disciples and remind them of Jesus' prediction of His death and His glorious promise of His resurrection? Don't you want to declare to them--guys, guys, remember Jesus and His words and His person and see in this not the wall of death and defeat but the door to abundant life and eternal hope?
Don't you think we all need to be reminded? Isn't life just full of those days "in between?" In between our grim reality and our wildest hopes. In between our failures and God's success. In between what our eyes can see and what faith can see. In between "reality" and God's true and ultimate reality. In between the often disappointing, hard world of sickness and paralysis and fear and doubt and the life eternal where there will be no more death, no more tears, no more illnesses, no more separation.
Today, on this day in between, might the Lord remind us that wherever in our lives we see an impenetrable wall, He has already provided the Door. The Door to abundance and blessing and peace and joy and security and fulfillment... forever and ever and ever... Help us Lord to wait with eager anticipation and trustful hope as You move and act even on our days "in between." Just as those disciples saw nothing, absolutely nothing, on that day to indicate what was about to happen, with You, when nothing is happening, something is happening, so help us to have faith in You. To the One who is our glorious Door, to You be the glory forever.
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