Read: Luke 24

By: Pastor Jarren Rogers

“Jesus’ death wasn’t to free us from dying, but to free us from the fear of death. Jesus came to liberate us so that we could die up front and then live. Jesus Christ wants to take us to places where only dead men and women can go.” –Erwin McManus

Can you imagine what occurred on the Saturday before Jesus rose? We know what happened on Good Friday. We definitely know what occurred on Easter Sunday. But, we don’t really know what happened on that Saturday.

This is all Scripture gives us:

“But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment” (Luke 23:56).

We may never fully know what occurred that day but I imagine there was sadness, tears, disappointment, unbelief, reflection, and the deep chasm of the unknown.

What if our story ended at the end of the last chapter?

Or what if it ended here:

“On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb.” (Luke 24:1).

What if the stone was never rolled away. What if the women found Jesus, dead, right where they left Him. What if Jesus never rose from the dead? What if that is where the story ended? What if that is where our story ended?

I think a lot of us live our lives on the Saturday before Easter. We live our lives embedded in the disappointments, trudging through our disbelief, strangled by our fear, crippled by our sadness, launched into the chasm of the unknown.

We live our life as if Easter never came. We live as if the women found the stone parked squarely in front of the tomb. We live as if Jesus still lay dead in His burial clothes. We live as if God has no power and Jesus did not defeat death, hell, and the grave.

So many of us are clutching our spices in front of the tomb but our backs are turned towards the open grave. Our eyes do not see the two men that shine like lightning. Our ears refuse to hear their voices as they say, “He is not here.”

Quit living on the Saturday before Easter. Don’t stop your story short. Quit living your life in front of the sealed tomb. Don’t let the fear, the disappointment, the sadness, envelope you. Quit allowing the unknown to stuff up your ears and block your sight from the angels sitting on the stone that was rolled away.

You serve a God who has real power. You serve a God who met the Enemy and defeated him. You serve a God who went into the mansion of death and went out the back door into life.  And he left it wide open. For you.

Easter comes tomorrow. Christ will rise. Don’t get stuck on Saturday.