A Very Dark Sabbath

It was a very dark sabbath for the followers of Jesus!

Jesus spent the Saturday resting in the tomb and it may had been the time of transformation. The pain was over for Him but for his followers the pain was great. How could this have happened?

They had believed that Jesus was the promised one and now what? They  had expected him to become King of Israel. But there was one clue for them that it was not quite over. Jesus had sung the first line of a favorite psalm of victory that begins "My God, my God, why have your forsaken me?" What we know as Psalm 22 starts in pain but ends in a great victory. Was Jesus telling them that in this death was his victory?

How many of them doubted it and how many held out the hope that it would be a victory? How often do we doubt in the midst of despair? For the followers of Jesus it was a dark Sabbath of despair and doubt - and I am sure of some true hope as they remembered his teachings. Today we remember that day of despair and pain for the followers of Jesus but we know the out come was the Resurrection.