Reading through a lot of different articles from DesiringGod and listening to the online sermons and podcasts from Easter Sunday, I realized during this Easter Monday how powerful, beautiful, and connective Easter Weekend is:
- Good Friday: The definitive sacrifice that tore the veil between man and God.
- Holy Saturday: The waiting ground of seemingly broken promises and a weighty absence of Jesus who “died”.
- Easter Sunday: The magnificent signature that secured our faith and brought light over the darkness of death.
Good Friday
What’s so Good about Good Friday?
It was a day of complete humiliation and suffering for Jesus.
A day of mockery and scorn.
A day where the innocent man was seen as guilty, and abused, flogged, and bestowed a sharp jagged crown of thorns.
A day where death was not quick like a gunshot to the head or painless like an anesthetic taken on the final days on a death bed.
It was an excruciating torturous way to die.
And yet, the day considered the worst death in history became our cry of redemption.
The best example of love, grace, and hope.
Rather than needing a priest to be our bridge to commune with the living God, Jesus the high priest built an eternally secure bridge that we can cross to commune any time with our Father in Heaven.
Rather than needing to atone for our sins and make ourselves pure and worthy, we were completely purified by the death of the Lamb of God, and made holy and worthy.
Rather than following the old ways of the law in the Bible in order to receive the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, we can receive all those promises through the complex yet simple belief in the Gospel, which is Christ’s death and resurrection.
Our sin has been washed away. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
- 1 Peter 2:24
Holy Saturday
Following Good Friday, though for us we can see the history of the following several days, the disciples and followers of Christ at that moment would be in a moment of despair.
All promises seemed cut off, and even though Jesus hinted at his resurrection in 3 days, it sounded empty in the face of His death.
Whilst buried in the grave, what thoughts could’ve gone through those who had to sacrifice almost 3 plus years of their life to this man who promised them a new kingdom, inheritance, and eternal life? Who led the way that seemed full of wisdom? That seemed to go against the grain of society? That seemed to have all the power of heaven on earth?
Though it was like a time in a barren wasteland, deserted without hope, Jesus’s death and time in Sheol were necessary. For Him to experience what we would experience in death is not to be taken for granted.
The thoughts of what happened are not certain and controversial — a time with the soul separated, a time being tortured, a time of loneliness, a time in darkness — but whatever happened, what is known is that Jesus became man and went to the place of no return.
Though it wasn’t evident, He went there bringing a temporary time of despair in order to bring about a sweeter chunk of joy.
Easter Sunday
It is this day, after a hiatus of any activity, where all the events that happened in the past couple of days culminate.
It’s not just a day about bunnies and eggs.
It is the day where the promise is fulfilled.
This is the truth of Christianity: IF Jesus did not resurrect, then there is no point in believing in this faith.
Though He might’ve shared wisdom, walked on water, gave sight to the blind, restored the legs of the lame, raised the dead, and done many miracles if He could not save Himself, all is lost and folly in this faith.
The promise that Jesus was perfect and the final sacrifice would be a lie.
If Jesus did not raise from the dead, the conclusion from all that would be we would still be living in our sins. We would still be living in the past law, the past promises that required sacrifices, the past that has not yet been redeemed.
There would be no finality.
And even more so, we as Christians would be in the greatest wrong, as what we preach and believe would be a false Gospel.
Our words, preaching, and beliefs would be blasphemy after blasphemy.
If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
- 1 Corinthians 15:19
But fortunately, He has and is risen!
There were countless accounts historically made during that 1st century.
The Bible declares it:
“and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.
Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.
Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.” (Paul)
1 Corinthians 15:5–8
With that, we can have hope and can have assurance in our faith.!
The resurrection of Jesus was the covenantal promise delivered.
The Conclusion
Through the intro of Good Friday, the body of Holy Saturday, and the conclusion of Easter Sunday, all these things declare how powerful Easter Weekend is and is foundational which the Gospel stands upon.
The big question is, how should these foundational promises affect our daily life moving forward?
The main thing is faith.
To truly believe in these promises and live it out.
There are many promises that are given in the Bible, and truths that God speaks into our via:
Identity
- Our identity as children of God. (1 John 3:1)
- Our identity as fellow inheritors with Christ, that as we suffer like Him, we may also be glorified with Him. (Romans 8:17)
- Our identity as a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession. (1 Peter 2:9)
Promises
- God’s promise that He works all things together for good for those who love Him, for those who are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)
- God’s promise that He is the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. (2 Corinthians 1:3–7)
- God’s promise that He will go before you, and He will never leave you nor forsake you. (Deuteronomy 31:6)
And so much more.
If we can come to terms and submit ourselves to these resolute identities and promises secured for us, no matter what trial and temptation faced, no matter what strongholds or anxieties we face, we will be unshakeable.
Not because of what we can do, but because of what God has done for us, and what He will continue to do for us.
So wrestle well with those truths, the faith given, and His grace.
It is difficult, but it is worthy.
“Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty… I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well.”
― Theodore Roosevelt
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