Rest and Resurrection

Scripture Introduction

One of the videos that I think we’ve played a few times for Easter is that powerful video by SM Lockridge. “It’s Friday....By Sunday is Coming...”

I love that…it’s a great transition into the beauty of the resurrection…Friday, but Sunday is Coming...but I think, we might be skipping something...

Luke 23:50–56 ESV

Now there was a man named Joseph, from the Jewish town of Arimathea. He was a member of the council, a good and righteous man, who had not consented to their decision and action; and he was looking for the kingdom of God. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then he took it down and wrapped it in a linen shroud and laid him in a tomb cut in stone, where no one had ever yet been laid. It was the day of Preparation, and the Sabbath was beginning. The women who had come with him from Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how his body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and ointments. On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.

The first part of this verse the events happen on that Friday. They lay him in the tomb…it’s Friday…and Yes…Sunday is coming.

But we need to sit with that Saturday for a moment. That simple little phrase that Luke puts in there. “On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.”

This is important. We need that Saturday. Let me try to place us there in the text a little.

In John 6, Jesus gives a very controversial sermon. He claims to be the bread come down from heaven. He is the source of eternal life, he tells them. And if they want to have life they need to eat of his flesh and drink his blood.

It sounds cannabalistic, and undoubtedly leave because of that. But the big reason why people leave is because Jesus is claiming for himself a status that they feel he hasn’t earned. The whole thing is confusing to them. And so it says in John 6:66

John 6:66 ESV

After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.

Turned back. Abandoned him. This is too hard of a thing. We don’t want to be associated with this. And the assumption is that they turned back to other things. They went back to a life without Jesus.

Then Jesus turns to His disciples and says, “Do you want to go too....”

Now listen to what Peter says. John 6:68-69

John 6:68–69 ESV

Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

To whom shall we go....

Now, take that confession with you to that Saturday morning. Jesus, the one with words of eternal life, the Holy One of God.

Joseph of Arimathea put him in a tomb. The women prepare spices for his blessed body.

And all the while Psalm 16:10 is ringing throughout: Psalm 16:10… “You will not leave my soul among the dead, you won’t let your Holy One see decay…you won’t let him rot in decay....”

But there is his body. In a tomb. It hasn’t started to decay yet…but that’s what happens in a grave.

Their hopes are dashed. You’ve been there too haven’t you? On those dark Saturday’s.

From the time she was a young girl, Agnes believed. Not just believed: she was on fire. She wanted to do great things for God. She said things such as she wanted to "love Jesus as he has never been loved before." Agnes had an undeniable calling.  She wrote in her journal that "my soul at present is in perfect peace and joy." She experienced a union with God that was so deep and so continual that it was to her a rapture. She left her home. She became a missionary. She gave him everything. And then he left her.

At least that's how it felt to her. "Where is my faith?" She asked. "Deep down there is nothing but emptiness and darkness …. My God, how painful is this unknown pain … I have no faith." She struggled to pray: "I utter words of community prayers—and try my utmost to get out of every word the sweetness it has to give. But my prayer of union is not there any longer. I no longer pray."

She still worked, still served, still smiled. But she spoke of that smile as her mask, "a cloak that covers everything." This inner darkness continued on, year after year, with one brief respite, for nearly 50 years. God was just absent. Such was the secret pain of Agnes, who is better known as Mother Teresa.

What do you do with a story like that?

In their book, How People Change, Timothy Lane and Paul Tripp talk about having a gospel gap in our lives. They liken it to those places under our stairs, or in a garage, or a junk drawer, or a closet. You clean it out and what happens....after just a little bit of time it fills up with stuff.

Our lives are like that. When there is a gap in our gospel it gets filled up with other stuff. We don’t like Silent Saturday. We don’t like the darkness of the tomb. And so we fill it up. Tripp and Lane offer a few potential substitutes…things will put in there.

· Formalism—this is having a busy church calendar. The gospel is reduced to participation in meetings and ministries of the church

· Legalism—Rules, rules, rules.

· Mysticism—Moving from emotional experience to emotional experience, pursuing an experience rather than Christ Himself.

· Activism—Getting involved in standing up for various causes. The authors caution this, “whenever you believe that the evil outside of you is greater than the evil inside you, a heartfelt pursuit of Christ will be replaced by a zealous fighting of the ‘evil’ around you.” (9)

· Biblicism—Being a theology nerd

· Psycholoy-ism—Seeing Jesus as a therapist more than a Savior. Being consumed by sin against, having your life swallowed up by a pursuit of personal healing.

· Social-ism—Being a social butterfly and throwing yourself into various relationships.

I might add Hedonism to the list. We just say forget the grave and go off and pursue various pleasures, or money, or power, or possessions. We run from the tomb.

Zack Eswine talks about the inconsolable things. Those things that just don’t get fixed this side of glory.

“Sickness, death, poverty and the sin that bores into and infests the human being will not be removed on the basis of any human effort, no matter how strong, godly or wise that effort is.”

We don’t like those things. Those are the things of Silent Saturday. I also like what Eswine says about our propensity to just talk louder at the inconsolable things:

“Fix-it-alls begin to think something like this: This situation or person couldn’t possibly be what it appears to be. We have quoted the Bible and made our arguments. Things should be fixed by now. There must be some hidden mischief here. We need to speak some more, but this time, louder and more accusatory.

What Eswine is saying, I believe, if we combine this wit what we learn from Tripp and Lane, is that these things we use to fill the gaps, don’t work, but rather than admitting this, we just talk a little louder. Kind of like being in a foreign country. If I just talk louder and maybe slower suddenly English will become Spanish.

You know, there’s another option with our Saturdays..

“On the Sabbath they rested...”

What is a Sabbath? It’s not the day when you stay home and watch football. Sabbath was woven into the fabric of the people of God in the Old Testament. Sabbath is connected to the wilderness. It’s connected to the manna in the desert—that bread that came down from heaven.

Sabbath is for the inconsolable things. Sabbath is when we rest. It’s when we take our hands of the plow. It’s when we acknowledge that we are finite. We have limits. We need rest.

Sabbath is a reminder that God holds the world in place. Can you imagine the difficulty of this Sabbath? Jesus needs his body prepared…This is the Holy One who is not supposed to see decay. We can’t leave Him here in the tomb....no we’ve got to work on this day.

But they didn’t…they—just as Jesus did only a few hours prior—entrusted His body unto the Lord. They gave this inconsolable thing to the Lord.

There is a song by Andrew Peterson that is so powerful. I’m not sure if the poem itself will capture it…you need the darkness of the room…the anticipation…the pain, the build up.

So they took His body down The man who said He was the resurrection and the life Was lifeless on the ground now The sky was red as blood along the blade of night [Pre-Chorus 1] As the Sabbath fell they shrouded Him in linen They dressed Him like a wound The rich man and the women They laid Him in the tomb

Six days shall you labor, the seventh is the Lord's In six, He made the earth and all the heavens But He rested on the seventh God rested He said that it was finished And the seventh day, He blessed it God rested [Verse 2] So they laid their hopes away They buried all their dreams About the Kingdom He proclaimed And they sealed them in the grave As a holy silence fell on all Jerusalem [Pre-Chorus 2] But the Pharisees were restless Pilate had no peace And Peter's heart was reckless Mary couldn't sleep But God rested [Chorus 2] Six days shall you labor, the seventh is the Lord's In six, He made the earth and all the heavens But He rested on the seventh God rested He worked 'till it was finished And the seventh day, He blessed it He said that it was good And the seventh day, He blessed it God rested

[Outro] The sun went down, the Sabbath faded The holy day was done and all Creation waited...

All Creation waited....

Place all those hurts and scars and inconsolable things into the tomb...

Sabbath them...

And we wait...

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Luke 24:1–6 (ESV)

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen....