Saturday In Holy Week: Matthew 27: 62-66.
Throughout the pandemic the thought has recurred, God has not pressed pause on His purpose for the Church and the world. We see on Good Friday how that purpose unfolded in the midst of physical pain and spiritual anguish. In the darkness of that day Good was still working.
That would not be clear to Jesus’ followers on Saturday in Holy Week. The shadow of the Cross lay heavily on their hearts. The worst had happened. A world without Jesus. The death of hope for each one and the nation.
But God had not pressed pause on His purpose. Beneath the quietness of a Jewish Sabbath, broken only by the machinations of the chief priests and the Pharisees, God was working to reveal the eternal sign of His good and loving purpose. Jesus, risen from the dead, renewed in body, mind and spirit, would be the prototype of a new humanity. What Jesus was in His risen state is what God longs for each man and woman. He stands as the sign of what God is working towards even in the midst of our worst of times.
Jesus recited psalms throughout His ordeal on the Cross. Psalm 57 is not mentioned but it surely reflects His experience and His faith that the worst will give way to the unstoppable surge of God’s good and loving purpose:
‘Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me, for in you my soul takes refuge.
I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed.’ (v.1)
