We Weep on Saturday and Praise God on Sunday!

This Easter feels different to me than in previous years. The last two months of ministry have been some of the most challenging months I have experienced in 19 years of being a pastor. We have some families in the church I serve going through very difficult situations, and I have faced some personal challenges. Honestly, I have done more weeping than rejoicing in the last two months. The disciples like us cried on Saturday and rejoiced on Sunday.

For the disciples, what is known as “Silent Saturday,” the day between Good Friday and Easter, there was much weeping and fear among them. Jesus had just been killed before their eyes. Everything seemed right on Palm Sunday, and now one week later, Jesus was dead. But in the silence of Saturday, between the tears coming down their faces, in the moments of wondering what was next, God was working, and Sunday was coming.

Resurrection Sunday changed it all! Jesus coming back physically alive changed everything about how we weep and see the present struggles and gives us future hope. The Bible does not promise us as followers of Jesus an easy life (see the life of the disciples after the resurrection), but it does promise us one day, Jesus will take all the wrong things in the world and make them right!

This Easter season, I find myself weeping a little more than usual, not just because of the last two months of trials but because of the hope I have in Jesus, who will one day destroy cancer and all our sicknesses, conquer pain and death. So I weep this Saturday between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday, tears of joy mixed in with present pain. These tears are a reminder of what Jesus has said in John 16:33, “In this world, you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer for I have overcome the world.”

I pray this Easter season, no matter what is happening in your life, you will take time to rejoice in Jesus, who is the one who will make all wrong things in our lives right one day.