Yesterday was Good Friday. Tomorrow is Easter. Good Friday would be horrifically pointless without Easter. Easter would be lacking in joy and nowhere near as poignant without Good Friday. Both days would have greatly diminished meaning without today.
Friday was awful. For years, until that day, we had our Super Hero, our Savior. Someone had come to make things right, and He was incredible - unlike anyone the world had ever known. We didn't think the person who'd come to save us would look quite like Him. He shunned military and political recognition and involvement and wasn't quite the warrior we'd come to expect, after all. But that was okay. Things were right now that He was around. With Him here, no matter what things looked like, we knew we'd be okay. Then they arrested Him. "Maddening... but He's still here. He's walked on water, healed the blind, raised the dead. Hope is not yet gone." Then they flogged Him to within and inch of His life. "I know He can stop this; why doesn't He?! But... He's still here. Things must turn out okay." Then they nailed Him to a cross. "He can get off that cross anytime He wants. He must." Then... then... He wasn't breathing anymore. The earth literally shook and the sky went dark. Even creation knew the gravity of things. I went numb. He wasn't breathing anymore...
Can He come back from death? He's raised the dead before, more than once! He can't be gone, I mean... He was our HOPE. They're taking His body down. I see no movement. They're putting Him in the tomb. The tomb has been sealed. Hours pass... nothing. The sun's rising. Time to start another day. Time to start another day?! He can't really be gone. But He is... He hasn't come back yet... that tomb is sealed tight. Mid-day. Nothing. The sun sets. Nothing. We're deep into the night, and I haven't seen my Super Hero since He died yesterday. He died yesterday. Hope died with Him, because now what do we do? We bet everything on Him...
Thousands of years removed, I experience Good Friday with the knowledge that "Sunday's coming." But those people couldn't see Sunday coming. Can you imagine?
