So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell His disciples. ~ Matthew 28:8
In the week leading up to Easter, I am often filled with a myriad of emotions. It was such an eventful week, filled with a triumphant ride into Jerusalem, an emotional and somewhat puzzling (at the time) supper with the disciples, a night full of betrayal, sham trials, and brutal beatings, culminating in a painful death on a cross, bringing heartbreak and (seemingly) hopelessness to the disciples and followers of Jesus.
This week I often find myself feeling very introspective and somewhat somber. To realize that so long ago there was a saga unfolding that would affect all of humanity, that the battle between evil and good waged not only in the events witnessed by the people in Jerusalem but also in the spiritual realm, is hard to comprehend. And on that Friday, in that moment of Jesus' death, it seemed to everyone looking on that evil had won. The light of life and hope seemed to be extinguished.
The disciples found themselves in a dark and hopeless state of . . .. nothing. No hope, no joy, no promise of the future. But God never leaves us there. Hopelessness and despair are never the end of the story with Him.
On Sunday the women went to pay their final respects, say goodbye to an era, and lay down the plans and hopes they had for the future. It was finished. They were wrong about so much of this, but they were right about one thing - it WAS finished - but not in the way they expected!
When they arrived at the tomb expecting death, despair, and desolation. Instead, they found light, life, and love. It was a plot change so sudden and dramatic they were left disoriented and hardly able to process what had happened. From darkness to light, despair to joy, defeat to triumph, death to life - how does the human mind comprehend this miracle? And the story they thought was finished - well, it was finished and yet it was just beginning. The victory was secured but a there was journey laid out before them - a victorious journey, but still a journey.
And each one of us is on that journey as well. It is a journey that takes us through many twists and turns, mountains and valleys, good times and bad. But it is one we can take with confidence because the One who walks beside us has already won the victory and secured our destination. No matter how many times we feel like we are living in a Friday know that Friday never wins. Sunday is coming!