Sabbaths were beautiful days for the Israelites! Days to rest and enjoy connection and eating together! Days to focus on God who cared for them, and all the beautiful things he'd made for them to enjoy around them! They were days of peace and laughter and joy! And they got to enjoy one every week!
Sabbaths on Passover weekend were extra special! Because people journeyed long distances to be together as a community for Passover! And so Sabbaths then were high days filled with wonderful togetherness and joyful spirits!
But this one was different. There was a sense of unease about the unsettling events of the day before. Jesus had been crucified very publicly, so everyone knew about it, even if they didn't really know much about him! And there were sobering details.
Like the darkness, black as night, that shrouded his dying body in bright daylight hours. The huge, ornate, thick-as-a-man's-fist curtain, that shielded God's most holy space in his temple, torn from top to bottom by some immense, unfathomable force! The earth that rumbled and quaked beneath them, cracking through huge boulders and breaking tombs open as he died! And there were many who'd been carried along with the mob crying out for his death, who's consciences were now deeply troubled.
And then there were those fear-filled and disillusioned followers - lost in an ocean of despair! Unable to see a way forward! Their hope for the future, gone.
Yes. This Passover Sabbath was a very different one. A very sobering one.
They had just killed hope.
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