04/11/2020
Are you quarantined, sequestered, and alone in your home due to the Coronavirus? Is this Easter season especially hard on you because you not only feel separated from family, friends, and others of faith, but God, and Jesus too? Today is Holy Saturday, and on this day we remember that Jesus was in the tomb, that it was the Jewish Sabbath, and that He was wrapped in a burial shroud. He was not still AS death, but still IN death. We also remember the suffering of the disciples who thought that Jesus was gone, dead, and that they had been left alone. Has Satan sought to take our hope, and our joy this Easter season as well?
“She went and told those who had been with him, as they mourned and wept.”
Mark 16:10 ESV
So on this same day, Holy Saturday, Black Saturday, those many years ago, the disciples believed that Jesus was dead, and that they were left alone. They were so convinced that they had purchased 75 pounds of spices with which to prepare His corpse, and were suffering, and mourning as the dark one tempted them, and told them that all was now lost. So complete was their separation from Him that when He did rise... they wouldn’t believe the news...
“But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it.”
Mark 16:11 ESV
This Easter season when we are told to remain in our homes, and not gather together in the company of other saints to celebrate the death, and resurrection of Jesus, we will be confronted once again by Satan, the great liar. He will tell us that all is lost, that our church has been defeated, and that Jesus, and our Holy Father, have abandoned us. For believers in the United States he will even show them that COVID-19 deaths have reached new heights on Easter Sunday, he will tell them that he has won the battle, but what he won’t say is that the COVID-19 plague has crested, and that the wave has now reached its breaking point, victory in Jesus is at hand.
“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”
1 Peter 5:8 ESV
In times such as these, when Hope is waning, we like to remember comforting scriptures about God being with us always, and Jesus being with us until the end of the age, but there is something else we should remember about our not being alone... we don’t suffer alone... we suffer with other believers, and mourn with Christians all around the world. Scripture repeatedly tells us to take heart, have hope, and believe; it also tells us to Love God, and resist the temptation of Satan...
“Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.”
1 Peter 5:9 ESV
We are in the midst of a trying time, a plague, and although we have been told to retreat into our homes, we do so in faith. Just as the Israelites were told to stay inside on Passover night, and treat their door posts and lintels with the blood of an unblemished lamb, we too need to remain in our homes, and use the blood of Jesus as our defense against a certain death that is coming. We are not alone, but sit in our houses, joined by millions of believers around the world who also sit in their houses. Together we use the blood Christ as our protection, we take his body in remembrance, and drink wine as the blood of His new covenant. We have hope that we will be back in our churches soon, and that the end of this plague will become a reality, as it glorifies God..
“And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.”
1 Peter 5:10 ESV
So today, we once again travel through the wilderness, our elderly are dying before reaching our new Canaan, we believe, and we are never alone. God is with us always, Jesus abides within us, and we suffer together with one another through the temptations, hardships, separation, and a sickness that is in the world, but we are never alone... never alone.
Prayer:
Father, thank you for being with us always, thank you for your Son Jesus who is with us, and abides within us, but Holy Father we especially thank you for each other, and for the comfort we find in suffering together. In times of hardship we face them as one... as neighbors, families, and one flesh... we turn to you as one people of faith. We lean on you Lord as we pray in the name of Jesus, and we tend to one another spiritually, and physically as life confronts us; even as you have commanded us. Today is Holy Saturday, and a plague has encircled the world, but in this dark time when the crypt is full, we have faith that you will bring life from it. In the morning the stone will be rolled away, and death will have been defeated. In the morning a new day will have dawned and we will be made new in you. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who takes suffering, and makes good rise from it. Wonderful are you who gives us hope where he world can find none, and who claims victory from certain defeat. Praised be your name for your mercy and grace that saves us from sin and death... bringing us in hope and renewal, transformed from the dust of death. Hear our prayers of contrition as we ask for your forgiveness, and our shouts of thanksgiving as we receive your answer to our prayer. All glory is yours Father for you are great indeed... now, and forevermore our Lord, and Comforter!
“To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.”
1 Peter 5:11 ESV
Rich Forbes