In Your Three Days - Waiting Well

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In my previous post, I talked about the way I view Easter Sunday and how Christ's resurrection power is more than just one day a year celebrating one event. So make sure you read that first!

 Something in the Easter story that resonates with me in this season of life is the three days of waiting that follow the pain and agony of the cross. Here's what I wrote about this:
The quietness of the three days always follows. Numbed by grief, overcome with emotion. The worst we have feared has happened and now…. Nothing. Fear. Anger. Sadness. And (as it must have felt to His followers and family) those three days always feel the longest. The most hopeless. It may feel like three days, or it may feel like an eternity. 
So what do we do in the three days of waiting? I found answers in Luke 24: 1-9:
"But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. 2 And they foundthe stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. 5 And as they were rightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? 6 He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee,7 that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” 8 And they remembered his words, 9 and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest." (ESV)

(1) Reaction
Our first reaction, as humans, is to tend to the dead. To return to our pain. To do as we have always done (v 1). Being human, we wallow in pain and self-pity. We feel (going from personal experience here) it is justified. We have been wronged, we have been hurt, something has been stolen from us. We are right to mourn. Just as it would be “weird” for these women not to bring spices for the body, it would be “weird” for us not to feel sorry for ourselves, for us not to feel pain or hurt. It’s just our nature. 

 (2) Expectation
Where Christ is involved, things are different. Where we expect to find death, we don’t (v 2-3). But Christ does the impossible for us. He rolls away stones. Stones that are huge and unmovable and physically impossible. And stones that are big and crushing and heavy. But He moves them. Where we return to our pain expecting death, it’s gone. 

 (3) Confusion
This can be confusing to us (v 4). Just as the women expecting to find Jesus’ body were “perplexed”, God’s ways are perplexing to us. He works beyond what our human minds can fathom. But He doesn’t leave us there in confusion.

 (4) Explanation
Stop looking to your pain to find healing. Stop looking for life in death. “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.” (v 5-6) In our confusion, God speaks (if we listen). As humans we return to our pain, trying desperately to understand it. Trying desperately to explain it or see the reasoning for it. “Maybe this is happening because ____.” Because we think knowing that will make it easier. But we are doing the wrong thing. We are looking for life where there is death. We are looking to pain for healing. In your three days of waiting, don’t look for help in the tomb. Your help isn’t there- your help is in Christ, the resurrected one. 

 (5) Forgotten
We forget what He has done for us and said to us in the past. Caught up in our pain, we forget His promises (v 6): “Remember how he told you…?” In our mourning, after we have seen the worst, after we have begged in the garden, after our hope is crucified on the cross, we forget. Caught up in our pain we lose sight of what He has promised us. Yes, he promised us pain would come. But He also promised us resurrection is coming. 

 (6) Recognition
God reminds us of His promises. Sometimes in strange ways. But He does. When we remember what He promises, we find answers. We find hope. (v 4, 8): “two men stood by them in dazzling apparel”.  Answers don’t always come in the form we think they will. In fact, you may not even recognize answers for what they are until much later. But answers will come. What God has promised us in the light, He will remind us of in the dark. 

 (7) Resurrection
And then we use those answers for His glory. (v 9): “And they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest”. When God reminds us of His promises, we can remind others. When God shows us He is working, that He is not dead, we can share this. I love that these women didn’t hold on to this information. They didn’t wait until they knew where Christ was or saw Him face-to-face to tell of His resurrection. God assured them, God sustained them in their waiting. Reminded of His promises, these women go and tell others that He has risen- before they have even seen Him. Bottom line? In your waiting, before you have seen Christ’s resurrection power in your situation, you can proclaim His faithfulness and love. Before you have been delivered, share the good news that you will be delivered. Because we know how this story ends...

 Later in verse 36, same chapter: “Jesus himself stood among them”. Verse 38: “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see”. In your darkest doubts, remember that one day, in this life or in eternity, Christ will stand with you once again. Moving past the pain that now seems momentary and fleeting, you will taste and see that the Lord is good. Until that day and after, we proclaim His glory.

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