It’s the Saturday after Good Friday that caught my attention this year... the hour after gut-wrenching hour between Friday evening and Sunday morning where the disciples must have sat in a confused stupor. These followers had just witnessed their hopes seemingly crushed on the cross the day before. And now what? With so many questions, so many creeping doubts, such heavy hearts, their victorious song of “Hosanna!” only days before ended in seeming dissonance. And darkness.
I can only begin to imagine the painful line of questioning as their minds badgered their hearts:
“What in the world?! Wasn’t he supposed to lead us to victory? This sure doesn’t look victorious to me. What if I really am the idiot that my family thought I was for following this guy??…. No… no. That can’t be. I remember when he fed those thousands. And when he brought Lazarus back from the dead?! I mean, how can I deny what my eyes saw that day? But those same eyes just saw him wrapped and taken to the grave. Dead! The tomb seems an odd throne for the Messiah. And what was that he said about “This is my body; do this in remembrance of me.”? Oh, how my head hurts. I must have missed something, but what? What did I miss?? “Miss”??? I MISS him! If he were here, he’d find a way with his stories to bring clarity to this confusion. I used to love watching the teachers of the law squirm when they knew they’d been beat by his simple stories. He sure did have a way with words… Words. Words I won’t ever hear again. This ache is gonna kill me. I’m stuck forever between his Words and today’s reality!”
Can’t you just see it? Practically despair!
Have you experienced a “Saturday” like that? One where you’ve contrasted His promises with your reality? The battleground of your heart finds a war waged between His banner of Truth and the whispered lies of a deceiver who jumps on these Saturdays like a lion pouncing on prey, ever ready to infiltrate our defenses with words dripping with doubt, fear, and disillusionment. Our enemy lives for Saturdays.
But… Sunday.
As the sun came up and the morning light revealed an EMPTY tomb and a Resurrected Savior, there came the much-anticipated consonance, the beauty of hope and victory as notes blending in a harmony that stretches across generations. A song that can reach into our Saturdays and remind us of Sunday. Let it’s hope-filled refrain echo, even when the darkness seems to absorb every bit of light. Because “Hosanna” in both of its interpretations (a: “Save now,” or b: a shout of praise) will be a Song worth repeating until your eyes SEE the Sunday that your heart can only hear the day before.
“So, hold on to what you believed in the light,
when the darkness has robbed you of all your sight.”
-Mumford and Sons
