Can you imagine? I had never thought about it quite this way before. Sitting at the lunch table the day before Easter, we were talking to our children about what Easter really means. We talked about Christ dying on the cross and being buried, about the ladies going to the tomb on Sunday morning finding He was not there, and about the joy they must have felt when He appeared to all of them. Then our daughter asked what they did on Saturday.
Most people assume the disciples were hiding. Some think they had given up on Jesus, and they may have. Mark 16:10 tells us, “She went and told those who had been with him and who were mourning and weeping.” Mary had gone to tell them Jesus was alive and she found them mourning and weeping. It goes on to say they did not believe her (Mark 16:11). I have often wondered how they could not have believed her and why they had not seen it coming.
Sitting at the table the other day, though, I started to understand a little more of what they felt. A day without Jesus – oh my. They had walked and talked with Him for three years seeing the many miracles He performed, but they had also seen Him die without completely understanding what was taking place. On Saturday morning they woke up to a day without Him.
Think about it – a day without guidance and direction, a day without the peace that had walked with them for years, a day without the joy that He brought, a day without hope. I cannot imagine a day without Jesus. I come to completely understand the mourning and weeping. I would probably do the same. It was that pause in eternity between Jesus mortal death, and His rising to become our Savior. What a long day that must have been.
I have wondered many times how people survive in this world without Jesus, and this brings that thought much closer to home. I cannot imagine a day without my Jesus, but so many in this world will experience life on earth and a subsequent eternity without Him. Wow. They must live in that fear and sadness daily. I have to be Mary to them – running to tell them He is no longer there. He is alive. Hope lives. I have to tell them. If I cannot imagine a day without Jesus, how can I sit by and let them to spend eternity without Him?
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