Conversation in Faith

Have you ever experienced a situation where something bad, really bad happened? Something that irrevocably changes your future? Something where “normal” as you knew it is gone and can’t come back?

This was the disciples situation. Jesus died on a Friday. They were frightened, and with good reason. What would they do without Jesus to guide them? How could they go on? The future they expected was not going to happen. Oh, I know Jesus told them, multiple times that he would be killed. But their expectations about what should be, what must happen, made it difficult for them to accept what was actually happening. You may have had a similar experience, when the unthinkable, the impossible happened, leaving you disoriented, and frightened.

But time does go on. And so Friday ends and Saturday comes. This Saturday, Holy Saturday, is a liminal space. The terrible past has happened. The future is unimaginable. And they are in between, knowing they can’t go back and unable to go forward. Sometimes all we can do is the next right thing.

Jesus is dead. What is the next right thing to do?

Now there was a good and righteous man named Joseph who, though a member of the council, had not agreed to their plan and action. He came from the Jewish town of Arimathea, and he was waiting expectantly for the kingdom of God^. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.  Then he took it down, wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid it in a rock-hewn tomb where no one had ever been laid. It was the day of Preparation, and the Sabbath was beginning. The women who had come with him from Galilee followed, and they 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. Luke 23:50-56 NRSVue

The disciples do what they can. They do the next right thing. Help comes to the disciples from an unexpected place. Joseph, a member of the council, takes over the immediate care of Jesus’ body. He does what he can do. The women accompany Joseph and Jesus’ body to the tomb. They do what they can do. The next right thing.

And then, they keep the Sabbath. The next right thing. Sabbath was a central practice from the earliest days of their religion. The Sabbath was a day where all, people and animals, rested as God rested. The Sabbath rest was a time to remember and to live as if God’s kingdom was present on earth. It was also a day to remember that God had rescued them from bondage. It was a day where Jews stepped away from the demands of the empire.

We don’t know exactly what the disciples did on that Sabbath. We can imagine they talked and cried. We can imagine they wondered where God was in their distress and sorrow. By keeping the Sabbath, even in their grief they waited and anticipated God’s coming kingdom. They remembered that liberation is possible. Perhaps they wondered what God would do next. We do know they did the next right thing. They kept the Sabbath. And the next day, Sunday morning, they would continue to do the next right thing.