This post on You Tube here: https://youtu.be/zbjK4TQgdmM
Luke 23:44-56 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2023%3A44-56&version=NLT
By this point in the narrative it is noon which is relevant because, for three hours in the middle of the day, the land was dark. You can work at accounting for that one through some natural phenomenon, but I defy you to explain how the Temple curtain tore from top to bottom. The Bible doesn’t tell us about this curtain, but a Jewish historian named Josephus who saw the Temple with his own eyes recorded that the curtain was sixty feet high and about four inches thick. It divided the Holy Place, which was an area of the Temple for sacred assembly, from the Holy of Holies, which was the area reserved for the presence of God and was only visited by a priest on very rare occasion. Zachariah at the beginning of this whole book was one of those priests. When that curtain tore, a symbolic barrier between God and humans disappeared. The God who could only be approached by one select representative of the Jews and only after an elaborate purification process, was suddenly accessible.
Why? And How?
Because when Jesus called out to his Father and breathed his last, the elaborate purification process, the one that involved not the death of an animal but the death of the Son of God, was completed. This purification, undertaken by this death, was final, complete, perfect. The crowd that had gathered was shaken. They were overcome with a sense of loss and went away mourning. Even the centurion who was there to oversee the execution knew something horribly unjust had happened. This man executed people for a living, but in that moment he fell to his knees and exclaimed that Jesus was an innocent man. No one who witnessed Jesus’ death was unaffected, but standing at a distance was a cluster of people who could make absolutely no sense of what they were watching.
Jesus’ friends, including some women who had followed him, cared for him, and provided for him throughout his travels, stood watching as the source of all of their hope and joy fell limp. A well dressed figure quietly, respectfully approached the cross and had the body of Jesus taken down. We are told his name was Joseph, he was from Arimathea, and although he was a member of the council, he had opposed the decision of the religious leaders who had Jesus killed. Luke also tells us that he was waiting for the Kingdom of God. If many around him had lost or distorted the faith, he had not. The Bible doesn’t mention him after we hear that he laid Jesus’ gently wrapped body in his own new tomb nearby. Some of Jesus’ friends followed to see where he put the body before they went home to assemble the spices and ointments that were traditionally used to prepare a body for burial. By then it was getting dark. The following day was Saturday, the Sabbath, which began at sundown. Jesus had taught them that healing on the Sabbath honoured God, but Jesus was dead. He was beyond healing.
The events of this past chapter are the events that are commemorated on the day we call Good Friday. I have often imagined that Saturday. If you have lost someone you loved deeply you know that surreal sense that something unthinkable has just occurred. You have all this love and nowhere to put it. It’s an awful feeling. I think this was much worse.
It had been roughly three years since Jesus was baptised by his cousin John and then began selecting a group of people to love and mentor. There had been so much excitement. It was a three year whirlwind of brilliant teaching, constant miracles, and a growing, radiating sense of anticipation that something wonderful was about to happen. Only a week before, Jesus was honoured like a victorious king as he entered the city. Now? Now he was dead, and it was all over. I imagine them sitting quietly in a house as the darkness of nightfall grows. No one thinks to light a lamp. Light feels farcical. The light is dead. What is there to see? As they sit in silence, they would swear they were completely numb except that fear begins to taunt them. They must have wondered if they would be next.
Take a deep breath. Feel this for a minute. There is something about the taste of sorrow that brings out all of the best flavours when we finally bite into joy. So sit with Jesus’ friends. They lived through a whole day of this. Friday night was awful. Saturday was a horrible fog that no one really ever talks about any more because there is no point in remembering. But Sunday was coming.
Aaaaaaaahhh! This is about to get SO good. I spent most of yesterday and the day before writing through the crucifixion. Even though I know how it ends, I was just exhausted with the sadness and unfairness of it all. I slept like I had spent the whole day digging in my garden. But today is a new day just like that Sunday 2000ish years ago and I’m so excited right now. It’s very important that I lay off the coffee so we can re-enter the story a little before the sun rises.
