Saturday, April 8, 2023

 

Saturday, April 8, 2023


Psalm 30

Genesis 2:1-3

John 19:38-42


Observance: Saturday in Holy Week – Easter Eve


God rested from all the work He had done.


If you are in Brisbane at the moment, you may be like me, and appreciating how the weather seems to be fitting the mood of this holy weekend so very well. The heavens themselves mourn over the death of God. But the weekend carries the promise of the rain clearing, and it is predicted that Resurrection Sunday will be the perfect kind of day to admire God’s handiwork down the coast.


If you are the type of person who likes to watch storms, you will be familiar with the little game of counting seconds between lightning and thunder to approximate the distance of the strike. Those moments between light and sound, between flash and thunder, can sometimes be quite tense, particularly when you are in the middle of a sub-tropical thunderstorm.


This is where we are today. At Christ’s death, the earth shook, the temple curtain ripped, the sun hid its face, the dead rose from their graves, and Jesus cried out “It is finished”. Then, silence. God’s work had been done. The creation He had made, blessed, called good, rebelled, and fallen into sin and death could now look to its perfect sacrifice in order to be made right again.


Now is the time to rest. But not for long; soon enough, the rock will be rolled away, and our Lord will rise from His well-deserved break, and He will give us work to do: to sound out the news of His victory like rolling thunder throughout the world.



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