Silent Saturday And the Grief (and Hope!) of Good Friday.

0:14 Leaders and pastors find health, encouragement, practical advice, soul care, and resources that work together to build up your local fellowship and the broader kingdom of God. Join hosts, Pastor Chris Cole and Dr. Chase Thompson from the Great Commission Association, led by Dr. Mike Stewart, as they explore the frontiers of ministry and aim for the goal of making every church flourish. Hello, everybody, and welcome in to episode number, oh, well, actually, this isn't really an official episode of the Every Church Flourishing Podcast brought to you by the Great Commission Association. Let's just consider this a bonus episode. Last night, I recorded a Facebook Live on Good Friday, and I thought I would share that meditation with you today.

0:59 We're going to talk about grief, the grief of Good Friday, the extended silent Saturday that all of us are going through, and the hope that comes from Resurrection Sunday. So thanks for listening. Here we go. I want to open with Matthew 27. Read a pretty good chunk of scripture. So as I read, I would encourage you to visualize this in your mind and even put yourself there at the scene, beginning in verse 27. Then the governor's soldiers took Jesus into the governor's residence and gathered the whole company around him. They stripped him and dressed him in a scarlet robe. They twisted together a crown of thorns and they put it on his head and they placed a staff in his hand and they knelt down before him and they mocked him. Hail, King of the Jews.

1:49 Then they spat on him, took the staff and kept hitting him in the head. After they'd mocked him, they stripped him of the robe, put his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him. Verse 32, as they were going out, they found a Cyrenian man from Africa named Simon. They forced him to carry his cross. And when they came to a place called Golgotha, which means place of the skull, they gave him wine mixed with gall to drink. But when he tasted it, he refused to drink it. After crucifying him, they divided his clothes by casting lots. Then they sat down and were guarding him there. and above his head, they put the charge against him in writing, this is Jesus, the King of the Jews.

2:37 And two criminals were crucified with him, one on his right and one on the left. And those who passed by were yelling insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, you who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself. If you're the son of God, come down from the cross. In the same way, the chief priests with the scribes and elders mocked him and said, he saved others, but he can't save himself. He's the king of Israel. Let him come down now from the cross and we will believe him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he takes pleasure in him. For he said, I'm the son of God.

3:18 In the same way, even the criminals who were crucified with him taunted him. From noon until three in the afternoon, darkness came over the whole land. And about three in the afternoon, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, which is, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? When some of those standing there heard this, they said, "'He's calling for Elijah.' And immediately one of them ran and got a sponge, filled it with sour rind and put it on a stick and offered him a drink. But the rest said, "'Let's see if Elijah comes for it.' But Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and gave up his spirit.

4:00 And suddenly the curtain of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth quaked and the rocks were split. The tombs were also opened and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. And they came out of the tombs after his resurrection, entered the holy city, and appeared to many. And when the centurion and those with him who were keeping watch over Jesus saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they were terrified. And they said, truly, this man was the Son of God. That is the word of the Lord from Matthew chapter 27. the writer Ashley Gibson says that we live in a culture that tends to rush past suffering.

4:44 Whether it's uncomfortable stories on the news, loved ones walking through difficulty, or our own seasons of adversity, it's easy to wish we could fast forward. Yet suffering is unavoidable, even in the Christian life. On Good Friday, it's not lost on us that we can inadvertently hurry past the suffering Savior because, hey, we know the resurrection is coming. Praise God for that. And as we look forward to that joy and celebration. Christ's suffering and his death and his agony on the cross can sort of feel like a footnote to the story. But Friday comes before Sunday and death comes before resurrection.

5:27 And if we neglect to rightly see the suffering of Christ, then we will fail to fully understand him and what the cross itself represents. We'll lose sight of the depth of joy of what the resurrection is. And not only that, we will miss the solace offered. By our suffering Savior. Earlier today in Birmingham, Alabama. My daughter Abby said goodbye to one of her best friends from early childhood into early adulthood. My wife sat in the hospital room with her parents as Maggie, a young lady that's not even 25 yet, prepares to leave this world.

6:11 When my wife Janet called me to tell me about it, just hearing the description of that moment impacted me physically. It caused tears and dizziness and cramping and emotional pain. I wasn't even in the hospital room with them as friends and family were telling Maggie goodbye. As of this moment, as far as I know, she has not left this world yet, but All indications are that her departure is imminent. And words are not powerful enough to convey how I feel about that disaster.

6:54 I can't imagine a worse thing. Really, I mean, this is not hyperbole. I can't imagine a worse thing than parents losing their precious child. And I imagine my dear friends, Nick and Lisa, are feeling emotions and grief on a level far beyond what I can honestly imagine right now. A writer named Kirsten Black reminds us that Jesus told his disciples exactly what was going to happen to him. In Mark 9, 31, Jesus said, the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him.

7:35 Yet, when Jesus was arrested, the disciples scattered in terror as their beloved leader was tried and killed. Thursday night into Friday, they had to have been full of trauma and disbelief as the one whom they loved and the one whom they really worshipped and looked up to was arrested, tortured, convicted of crimes he didn't commit and crucified. And despite the fact that Jesus told his followers what would happen, they were bewildered and confused and overwhelmed with grief. And I don't imagine they thought Jesus was lying. They just couldn't comprehend it. It was so overwhelming.

8:17 And that might seem a little weird to us just reading the story because, you know, thinking about how the disciples were surprised and shocked by the crucifixion of Jesus. I mean, he told them like a bunch of times, hey, I'm going to Jerusalem and they're going to kill me. But. I get it because he's told us something similar in John 16, 33. Jesus told his disciples and his future disciples, followers of Jesus, us, in this world, you will have tribulation. It's a promise. And Peter tells us that we should not be surprised at the fiery trial that is happening to us as though something strange were happening to you.

9:03 And I said it before, I'll say it again now, pretty much every time my family or I go through a fiery trial, I'm always surprised. Jesus promises it's coming. Peter says, hey, don't be surprised. It's not strange. And when it happens to me and those close to me, it's like I'm shocked. And I cannot think of a fierier trial than losing a child, losing a spouse, or many of the difficult things that people who are watching this now or will watch it later have experienced. And I am not going to do something trite like suggest today that Good Friday is a curative for that grief.

9:47 Now, hear me out. That would be too simple, and I think it would be incorrect as well. The simple fact of Christ dying on the cross, it does. It has profound, immeasurable, world, universe-shaking impact. It opens the door for eternal life for all who look to him in faith believing, but it does not, and I'm saying this according to what the Bible says, it does not immediately relieve all of our pain and grief and trauma. And anybody that tells you that it does, either doesn't understand the Bible or they're treating the gospel like a used car salesman treats a used car.

10:28 What the crucifixion does do, rather than immediately erasing our pain, our grief and trauma, does point us to the reality of a soon coming cure. California Baptist pastor Shadrach Meshach Lockridge, an African-American pastor who lived in San Diego, popularized the saying you might have heard of before, it's Friday, but Sunday's coming. And yeah, his real name was Shadrach Meshach Lockridge, which is an awesome name, Shadrach Meshach. And I guess I kind of feel bad for Abednego because that is the funnest name to say.

11:11 But in Shadrach Meshach Lockridge's sermon that you've probably heard parts of before, he says this, and he says it in a better voice than I have. I'm sorry for my inferior sermonizing here, but he says, it's Friday. Jesus is praying. Peter's asleep. Judas is betraying, but Sunday's coming. It's Friday. Pilate's struggling. The crowd is conspiring. The crowd is vilifying. They don't even know that Sunday's coming. It's Friday. The disciples are running like sheep without a shepherd. Mary's crying. Peter is denying, but they don't know that Sunday's coming. It's Friday.

11:51 The Romans beat my Jesus. They robe him in scarlet. They crown him with thorns, but they don't know that Sunday's coming. It's Friday. See Jesus walking to Calvary, his blood dripping, his body stumbling, and his spirit burdened. But you see, it's only Friday. Sunday is coming. It's Friday. The world is winning. People are sinning, and evil is grinning. It's Friday. The soldiers nail my Savior's hands to the cross. They nail my Savior's feet to the cross, and then they raise him up next to criminals. It's Friday.

12:31 But let me tell you something, Sunday's coming. Now, like I said, I wish I could say it in Shadrach Meshach's awesome voice, but you get the point. On April 3rd, 33 AD, things looked bad for Jesus's followers. Their Lord was dead and their hope was gone. But we know something they didn't fully realize, that Sunday was coming and it would change change everything for them, and it would change everything for the world. What about Saturday? I remember a movie when I was a kid. I grew up in the Friday the 13th movie eras, and at some point somebody made a spoof movie called Saturday the 14th because everybody was like, we forget Saturday and that whole thing.

13:16 And it's almost as if the Bible forgets that whole Saturday. There's nothing in the Bible about that Saturday. What was going on as the disciples were stewing in their hopelessness. They weren't waiting for anything because it really appeared. They did not believe that Jesus was coming back from the dead. Indeed, I know the women were there on Sunday morning, but the Bible is very clear. The only reason they were there is they were going to embalm and prepare his body with burial spices and cloths for permanent burial. The guys weren't there. They were whatever, holed up, sad, lonely, you name it.

13:57 The ladies went, but not because they had great faith. They went to finish the job of burying Jesus. So what happened on that silent Saturday? What were they thinking? What was going through their minds? I mean, we can only imagine because the Bible doesn't talk about it, but I imagine they cried. They stared at the walls. They were paralyzed with grief. They probably prayed. They shook with pain and hurt. I bet they doubted. And I bet they were angry because all of that happens when you go through grief. And almost certainly they were confused, scared, hopeless, bewildered, and utterly demoralized. It was an awful, silent Saturday.

14:40 And then Sunday came. I think that silent Saturday, not mentioned in the Bible, is very significant. And it's very significant that it's not mentioned in the Bible because we are, especially those of us whose life has been so stamped by grief, we are all in a similar silence, the silence of Saturday. And some of us are in it far deeper than others. I'm not sure if Shadrach, Meshach, Lockridge, preached that sermon about, it's Friday, but Sunday's coming, before Martin Luther King Jr. Preached what I'm about to read to you or vice versa. But those two guys were friends.

15:24 They both influenced each other, preached in each other's churches, that kind of thing. And Martin Luther King Jr. Captures the essence of that silent Saturday in a sermon he preached in Montgomery, Alabama, my home state, in 1957. And he also talked about the silent Saturday without mentioning it in the context of the African-American struggle for the civil rights that they were due. He says this, you know, every now and then, my friends, I doubt. Interesting to hear a preacher say that, I doubt. Every now and then I get disturbed myself, says King Jr. Every now and then I become bewildered about this thing. I begin to despair every now and then.

16:08 And I wonder why it is the forces of evil seem to reign supreme and the forces of goodness seem to be trampled over. Every now and then I feel like asking God, why is it that over so many centuries, the forces of injustice have trampled and triumphed over the Negro and he has been forced to live under oppression and slavery and exploitation. Why is it God? Martin Luther King Jr. asked in 1957, why is it simply because some of your children asked to be treated as first-class human beings, they are trampled over, their homes are bombed, their children are pushed from classrooms, and sometimes their children are thrown into the deep waters of the Mississippi.

16:53 Why is it, oh God, that that has to happen. And King says, I begin to despair. Sometimes it seems like Good Friday has the throne. It seems the forces of injustice reign supreme, but then in the midst of that, something else comes to me, and I can hear something saying, King, you're stopping at Good Friday, but don't you know that Easter's coming? Don't worry about this thing. You are just in the midst of the transition now. You are just in the midst of Good Friday now, but I want you to know, King, that Easter is coming. Martin Luther King Jr. Preached hope to himself, and the hope wasn't made up. It was resurrection hope in light of the resurrection of Jesus.

17:38 And the fact of the matter is many of us are in that reality now. We're living in the reality of a very long extended Friday and a seemingly silent Saturday. We're believers in Christ. We trust in him. We look to him. We believe his resurrection, but grief screams loudly in our lives. Sometimes, oftentimes, times. It's the only sound we can hear. Maybe we've lost a child. Maybe we've lost a spouse. Maybe we're overwhelmed by injustice in the world. Maybe we're overwhelmed by a terrible injustice in our own life. And like Martin Luther King Jr., we begin to doubt.

18:21 Our heart begins to slide away and become cold and just so overwhelmed with pain. It just is hard to feel anymore. We stare at the walls like the disciples did on Silent Saturday in Deep and Utter Despair. Tim Challies, the Reformed blogger, pointed me to a book by a lady named Heather So, S-O, Heather So called The Suffering of a Child, and I bought it this week. Now, Dr. Heather So is a counselor. She's a writer, but more importantly, she's a mom. And a few years ago in 2022, I think it was 2022, her precious daughter Emily, who was only four, was diagnosed with a very aggressive brain tumor and given a terminal diagnosis.

19:09 And her book, The Suffering of a Child, is basically Heather's journaling through her daughter's death. And it's profoundly gut-wrenching to read, but it's also as real as concrete and metal. And in this book, we see a family that is shook by an F5 tornado of trauma and death, and yet in the midst of enormous heartache and pain that still remains to this day, of course, and probably will remain until Jesus comes back and wipes every tear from our eye. This family, the So family, clings to Christ. Shortly after her daughter's death, Dr. So wrote this, and I warn you, it's not over brimming with hope.

19:54 It's reality of grief on a silent Saturday. She says. Suffering is awkward, and everyone maybe must make their own private piece with it. I can sense the people who are uncomfortable or unfamiliar with suffering. Some people have a pained look when they see our family now, or others may ask me how I am, but their expression is high-pitched and bubbly, begging me for a positive reply. When Emily was alive, at times I would show tears or struggle, and there were some people who immediately plastered me in positivity. You'll be okay.

20:36 She'll be okay. Or you have to make the most of the time. Or now, just weeks after Emily died, I sometimes get the at least comments. Like, at least she's not suffering now. Or at least you had five years with her. or at least she's in heaven now. Sometimes I get religious plastering too, like God will use her suffering or you'll see her in heaven soon. And Dr. So says, I know for some seeing our sadness makes them uncomfortable. They keep me at arm's length. Maybe suffering has not been made their acquaintance yet. I can understand, but I also feel their distance.

21:17 So what do we do when those close to us are walking in the middle of not the valley of the shadow of death, but the valley of death. Dr. So gives some advice. She says this, a comforting presence with few words. Because words don't heal broken hearts. A comforting presence with few words is such a valuable gift when you are mourning. The friends and family who don't feel the need to say much to me, who can just sit with me as I cry or hold my hand for even a few seconds, the people who hurt with us, these simple moments mean the most to me. When our spirits are quiet and present with each other.

22:01 There's no whitewashing of the pain. It's just allowed to be, and it is enveloped in their love. We humans, especially those of us who have never experienced colossal levels of grief and tragedy, we're not comfortable with suffering. We're scared of it, and we want it to stay away. And Good Friday, the Garden of Gethsemane, the crucifixion and And the empty tomb does not yet wipe every tear away, and it does not yet cure every heartache. That won't happen until Jesus comes back. That's how I read Revelation 21 and 22. But—. Does demonstrate the depth and the power and the intimacy and the tangibility of God's great love for his people.

22:52 And that profound love, when we see it, when we see it clearly, gives us real hope in the midst of raging seas. And in that mindset, I want to finish with a brief meditation on the love of God as demonstrated in the Garden of Gethsemane. And about the garden, C.S. Lewis said this, I get no further than Gethsemane, and I'm daily thankful that that scene of all others in our Lord's life did not go unrecorded. Charles Spurgeon in 1855 says this about the Garden of Gethsemane, see him as he drinks the cup in Gethsemane when the fluid of that cup mingled with his blood and made each drop a scalding poison.

23:36 See how each nerve is twisted and contorted with his agony. Behold his brow covered with sweat. Witness the agonies as they follow each other into the very depths of his soul. Oh, the deep, unutterable, ah, that wrestling God, man, that suffering man of Gethsemane. Weep over him, saints. Matthew 26, 39, Jesus prayed in the garden, let this cup pass from me. Here's an honest confession from me. That I hope my five kids quickly forget if they happen to be listening to this. I do not like saying no. Of course, I do say no to that which harms them. At least I try to.

24:20 But even then, when I say no, there's some twinge of pain, some cramp in my emotions when I refuse an earnest request. And I hope I'm not permissive. Sometimes the kids think I'm overly strict. But just truth be told, I would always rather say yes than say no. And perhaps that's why Gethsemane is so profoundly arresting to me when I read it. When we look to the garden where Jesus prayed to let the cup pass and the Father said no, we begin to grasp the height of the Father's love for his people and the depth of Christ's sacrifice for us.

25:03 A love that caused the Father to utter a resounding no to a bloody. Tiered request made by the only perfect Son to ever exist. Search the internet, and you're going to find tons of excellent, probably thousands of excellent, needful exhortations to look to the cross. And there's songs about looking to the cross in YouTube videos, and thousands of sermons in my Logos library tell me, to look to the cross. And there's not even one. In my Logos library, there's not one single reference in all those thousands of sermons to look to the garden. That's what I'm going to ask you to do now as we close out. I'm going to ask you to look to Jesus in the garden to understand the profundity, the depth, the magnitude of the Father's love for his people.

25:57 Prayerfully focus your hearts on the scene from Mark 14, 33, which says, Jesus began to be deeply distressed and troubled. He said to them, I am deeply grieved to the point of death. Going a little further, he fell face down and prayed, My father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me, yet not as I will, but as you will. So the son knows what is coming, and it is not just the tearing whip, the crushing crossbar, the disgusting gall on the sponge, the spear thrust. The beating with a stick, the pulling out of his beard, the hammer nails, but the punishment that brought us peace, plus all of the pain of the Roman execution.

26:45 Jesus foresaw, before it happened, the terror of separation from his father, along with being saturated to the depths of his soul with the sins of humanity, and he was staggered. Luke 22, 44 says, being in anguish, he prayed more fervently and his sweat became like drops of blood falling to the ground. Well, if you're a dad, you know the battle. Your kids are pleading with you, begging, Dad, please, and your resolve weakens and hear. Jesus, the perfect, pleasing Son of God, is not asking for a car or a Nintendo Switch 2 or some frivolous thing, but he's asking to avoid the greatest suffering that would happen in all of human recorded history.

27:37 The most innocent being that ever walked the face of this earth is about to undergo the most heinous punishment ever, and he's asking his loving and abounding in mercy father for relief. What will the answer be? And the answer is nothing. Silence. The heavens are brass. And it appears that the only answer the son of God hears is the unmistakable sound of soldiers' boots marching into the garden to arrest him. Either way, he knew there would be no reprieve, no last minute call from the governor, execution was imminent.

28:18 And this is why Good Friday is so very good for us, because God the Father so loved his people that he gave his son. We were bought with a price, says the Apostle Paul, and Jesus paid that entire price, an infinite God suffering infinitely to atone for the sins of billions. A Good Friday. So friends, even in the midst of your grief and your suffering and your sorrow and your trials and your trauma and your heartache, if you're going through that, look to the garden and revel and rejoice and remember. Even celebrate, even though your heart is burdened by grief.

28:59 Romans 8.31, if God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him for us all, how will he not also along with him graciously give us all things? So, a poem. Look to the garden and celebrate how love held back heaven's rescue, allowing the bitter cup to flow freely to the cross. Christ's payment crushed death's weight. Beneath the olives, midnight learned to kneel, and heaven kept silence, hard as brass.

29:40 The moon laid down its thin, accusing steel on vines that watched the son of sorrows pass. He did not fear the timber or the thorn, as mortals fear the dark, the tomb. He saw the ancient covenant torn, so thieves like me could live and bloom. There in the garden's bruised shade, the second Adam bent where we once stood. The first reached out, and the world was frayed. The second came, and sweat came like blood. O Father, here is love beyond our speech. Not that you spared the holy from the rod, but that your terrible mercy chose to reach through forlorn prayer to ransom us to God.

30:25 So let me look before I'm undone, past cross and hammer to that gnarled stave where God said no to his son and yes to those he saved. Thank you for listening. I hope that today was a good Friday for you. I hope that you find, even though you might be going through a long, extended, silent Saturday of grief and pain and trauma and what else, I hope that you find in Good Friday today and Resurrection Sunday, I hope that you find the hope that you need in Jesus to persevere until he comes back and himself wipes every tear from our eyes. Thanks for watching.

31:11 Good day to you and Godspeed.