All the hopes and the drams for the future that had been kindled and nurtured through the past years had been wrenched from the cross and sealed in a cold tomb, a burial that signified the end of everything the band of followers cared for. Jesus was not only their hope for the future, he was also their best friend and their family. They had loved him, and now his life had been brutally snuffed out. 

Reaching Toward Easter, p 129

Everyone has their own way of dealing with the transition from Good Friday to Easter morning, and sometimes it changes from year to year.

I have often approached this day – Saturday – as an opportunity to reflect on what it must have been like for the disciples, having lost Jesus to such a terrible death on Friday yet never having experienced the joy and glory of an Easter morning.

Jesus’ friends must have been completely overwhelmed by despair. Even the most faithful among them cannot have imagined the possibility of resurrection. It’s easier for us, in hindsight, to see so many things Jesus said during his ministry that point to his victory over death, but at the time all they could see was the brutality, the last breath, the grave, and the finality…

But it is hard to identify, especially when this is so often a day of excited children on Easter-egg hunts, and family get-togethers, and all the color of glorious springtime.

So, usually, rather than meditating on the darkness, this is a day filled with anticipation, hope, and promise.

This year, with so much despair in this broken world via hate, and disharmony, and hostility, and war, I plan to embrace the beauty of new life and promise in every way that I can.

It’s not just okay that we experience Good Friday in the context of the coming of Easter, I recommend it! Let’s not forget for an instant that light absolutely defeats darkness, that good always overcomes evil, that dark winter gives way to brilliant spring, and that there is nothing with the power to separate us from the regenerative love of God!

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:37-39

And so, always, I am going to share these images of promise and these words of faith – DEREK