In one evening everything changed. For three years the disciples had followed Jesus, leaving behind the life they had known, believing He was the Messiah, the One God had promised long ago. All was going well, until that Thursday night when Judas, one of their own, betrayed Him, leading to His death on a cross. The very next night Jesus’ body lay buried in a grave, along with all the disciples’ hopes and dreams. The One they had seen turn water to wine, walk on water, calm storms, heal the sick, feed 5,000, did nothing to save Himself.
Darkness surely fell heavy upon their spirits on that Sabbath after Christ’s death, weighed down with the horror of the cross, a sense of hopelessness, disappointment, confusion, and a broken heart. I wonder, though, how, in the stunned silence of that Saturday, it could have been different had the disciples believed, or understood, what Jesus meant when He said “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men; and they will kill Him, and He will be raised on the third day” (Matt 17:22, 23).
Had they known and trusted that Jesus would conquer the grave the next day, Saturday may have looked quite different for the followers of Jesus. While they may have still shed tears and fretted over the Jews, the dominant mood would have been one of expectation and hope. They would have encouraged each other to keep watch as they eagerly waited for the next day, when Jesus would fill the disciples with joy and stun His enemies in victory over death.
Similarly we too live in a day of waiting, a time between Jesus’ promise to return and His fulfillment of it. As Paul writes, “For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves,…groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoptions as sons, the redemption of our body” (Rom 8:22, 23). In the midst of this waiting Jesus exhorts us, “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me…for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:2, 3).
Like the disciples on the second day of Jesus’ death, however, I struggle to comprehend this promise of a future paradise. I cannot fathom the idea of heaven, where I will talk with Jesus face to face, be fully restored to His image with no trace of sin, frolicking on an earth free from decay. So I get caught up in daily life. I often live like this world is my only, and ultimate, home, not quite grasping how God’s plan of salvation can impact my everyday.
But though the disciples struggled to understand the resurrection before witnessing it, once they see the risen Christ and are filled with His Spirit, they change. Hope and joy replace grief and fear. A confidence in God’s promises saturates the letters they write to the churches and the sermons they preach to the masses. No longer seeking after the goods of this present world, their greatest desire is to be united again with Jesus and for others to know Him and His salvation, and as a result, partake of the future resurrection.
Because of their witness (and more so, the trustworthiness of Jesus), we too can live in such a way that hope, joy and an eager expectation dominate our days. God didn’t share with us His future plans merely to give us something to think about as we near death. Rather, this hope is meant to be the driving force of our lives, filling our hearts each day with yearning, granting us strength to persevere with love and joy, and fueling our purpose to live for what will last forever. Peter writes that the source of our inexpressible joy is our assured salvation by which God “has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Pet 1:3-9).
Jesus will come back for us, resurrecting us to new bodies free from sin and fit to live upon a renewed earth liberated from the weight of the fall. As we might discuss a future trip to Hawaii with friends and family then let’s ruminate over the bliss we will have in heaven. It is by thinking about this happiness to come that we will find strength to persevere through tough times, joy that both baffles and witnesses to the world around us, hope that keeps seeking transformation to Christ’s likeness in both ourselves and others.
So this Saturday as we wait to celebrate Christ’s resurrection on Easter Sunday, let’s consider how it would have been different for the disciples had they understood they would see Jesus alive again the next day. As we do, let this also lead us to consider how our own trust in His future, and imminent, return might impact and change our lives, in the routine, in the sorrows, and in the joys. If we truly believe, by God's grace, in this future resurrection and glorification, our emotions, actions and desires will assuredly fill with God’s hope, joy and purpose.
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