Jesus Christ still casts a shadow longer than anyone who has ever lived on this li’l blue marble we call Earth–and rightly so.
He is fully God and fully human, and His teachings are still incorporated into everything we do in life. His crucifixion and resurrection are the basis of salvation for all of those that are willing to believe that He was who He said He was, and He did what is reported in the Bible.
Pretty simple if you are willing to shake off the confusion of the world we live in today.
My colleague here Susie Moore had a really interesting post on Holy Thursday called Moore to the Point – Remember Just How Much You Are Loved that in part talked about the movie “The Passion of the Christ” by Mel Gibson.
From her post…
This Sunday is Easter, which makes this Holy Week, and today Holy Thursday.
It got me to thinking about the movie “The Passion of the Christ.” I bought the DVD years ago, with every intention of watching it shortly thereafter. But, for some reason, I never could quite bring myself to do so. I’m not sure what it was that was holding me back – I’m a believer and obviously familiar with the story of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection, but I suppose the idea of actually seeing it recreated in (what I’d been forewarned was) graphic detail was a bit more daunting than reading about it in the Bible or even hearing a pastor preach on it.
About two years ago, I finally made a point to watch it and I’m so glad I did. As difficult as it was to watch, it really brought home the enormity of the sacrifice made for us – and of the depth and breadth of God’s love for us.
As Susie mentions, it is incredibly tough to watch and after doing this for a number of years, it has gotten no easier each year. In fact, this year I split it up between Good Friday and Holy Saturday, being it still makes me squirm watching what the Son of God went through to redeem us.
This also reminded me of a post that I had done here last year on the RedState VIP side called The Longest Saturday. If you are NOT a RedState VIP subscriber, you can use the promo code “LaDuke” to get a discount now.
If you’re unfamiliar with “The Passion of the Christ,” it chronicles the last 12 to 15 hours of Jesus Christ’s life before he is crucified on the cross. The movie is graphic and shows how the Romans treated prisoners back in that day. However, it also features flashbacks of Christ recalling some of his teachings to the apostles, which are told in the Holy Bible.
The movie ends with Christ being lowered from the cross, and then a brief scene of him standing up in the Tomb on Resurrection Sunday. Last year after watching the movie, this got me wondering what the apostles did on the day between the crucifixion and the resurrection.
What did they do on that full day in between these historic events? From my VIP post…
Today is what most of those of the CHRISTian faith call Holy Saturday, and not much is mentioned about it in the New Testament. I believe the only reference in the Bible to what any of the Apostles did on the night before the Resurrection was in Luke 23:56 – King James Version.
And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment.
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So, what did the followers of Jesus do after he was pulled down from the cross on Friday, through that long Saturday before Resurrection morning? I try to put myself in the shoes of those men and women, even for a brief moment, to better understand, and I can only come up with this.
Trying to make it short and sweet I firmly believe that they were just simply
FREAKED out and TERRIFIED.
I know I would have been.
For the better part of three years, these men and women had watched Jesus of Nazareth do things that nobody other than God could do. He had multiplied fish and bread to feed thousands, he had healed lepers and cured diseases of all different kinds, and He had also raised his friend Lazarus from the dead a couple of days after he had been entombed. Quite simply, they had become accustomed to watching him do miracles as easily as we breathe, and they probably believed that nothing could happen to Him.
Yet, as I wrote in my post…
John The Apostle, along with Mary Magdalene and Jesus’ mother Mary, were the ones at the crucifixion of Christ according to the Bible and would have been able to relay back to the others on Friday night and Saturday what the horrific scenes were like. So, while they rested on the Sabbath, the thoughts ricocheting through their minds must have been of immense sorrow and fear for their own lives.
That Saturday they most likely were absolutely devastated sad, angry, and disappointed with every emotion and feeling that a human being could have, and they most likely felt that they were lied to. When I have talked to people about this, some always point out that the apostles were given a warning, and that they of course did not listen. Christ himself did point out that some of his parables and warnings would not be comprehended and understood until a future time–and He was right.
That is the part that probably would have tortured me the most. I envision my mind swirling, trying to put the pieces together of what I had seen, while dealing with the fact that my mentor, my friend, and my God had been absolutely humiliated in such a fashion that the Romans did.
That first Holy Saturday I imagine, in their minds, was anything but holy, and it was probably one of the longest days of their lives. Yet the pain and agony that they all went through on that first Saturday after that first Good Friday allowed them to bear witness to the most incredible event in world history.
The resurrection of the Son of God, Jesus Christ.
The lesson that I try to take from this is that you may have things going along perfectly and at times, think that you have a perfect understanding of everything that is going on. However, you will hit a skid and all of a sudden, things don’t seem to make sense–sometimes in a blink of an eye. That is when you need to dig in, button-down, and simply just hold on.
The bleakest Saturday, possibly ever, turned into the most glorious Sunday that has ever been 2,000 years ago, when the followers of Jesus Christ and the Roman guards found a tomb empty and sin conquered.
I truly hope that you have the most blessed Easter Sunday tomorrow, and continue to seek out the words and the wisdom of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
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