Saturday--The In Between Day

Last year, at the annual meeting for the American Academy of Christian Counselors, John Ortberg shared a message about the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter.  I would commend the whole thing to you, but I want to point out a few tidbits. 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

This isn't Sunday. This isn't Friday. This is Saturday. The day after this but the day before that. The day
after a prayer gets prayed but before it gets answered. The day after a soul gets crushed way down but
before it gets at all lifted up. It's this kind of strange day, this Saturday. It's the in-between day. Not
Friday. Not Sunday. In between despair and joy. In between utter confusion and blinding clarity. In
between bad news and good news. In between darkness and light. In between hate and love. In between
death and life. It's the in-between day.

It's kind of odd because so much is happening on Sunday. So much is happening on Friday. Nothing
happens on Saturday. At the heart of the Jesus story, at the heart of human history are these three days:
Friday, Saturday, Sunday. The first day and the third day are so packed with action, event, emotion,
drama, detail, we could literally talk for a year and not scratch the surface. Some of the brightest people in
the history of world devote their lives to those two days. They are literally the two most studied, written
about days in human history.

Then there's Saturday. Even in the Bible (outside this one little detail about guards being posted to watch
the tomb), we're told nothing about anything happening on Saturday. On Good Friday our sins get paid
for. On Easter Sunday our hope is brought to life. Saturday is the day with no name, the day when nothing
happened.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Saturday is the day your dream died. You wake up and you're still alive. You have to go on, but you don't
know how. Worse, you don't know why. It brings up this odd question, this strange story: Why is there a
Saturday? Why is there a Saturday? It doesn't further the storyline. If Jesus is going to be crucified then
resurrected, why not get on with it? Just die on the cross then boom, resurrection. Why is it just those two
events but over three days? There is a reason. There is a reason for Saturday.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

There is this structure according to the Scriptures. This is how life goes, these stories. It's a three-day
story. On the first day there is trouble, and on the third day there is deliverance. On the third day there is
good news. On the second day, there is what? Nothing. Trouble. Deliverance will come on the third day,
but it comes from God. God is the One who brings it. We can't make it happen. We can't force it. It's this
odd second day of trouble.

Now here's the problem with third-day stories. In a third-day story, you don't know it's a third-day story
until what day? Until it's the third day. When it's Friday, even when it's Saturday, as long as you know…
deliverance is never going to come. It may be a one-day story trouble, and that trouble may last the rest of
your life. It may just go on and on. The trouble with a third-day story is you don't know it's a third-day
story when you're in the middle of it. That is the bad thing about Saturday.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Despair or denial, or there is this third option: You can wait. That's a killer, isn't it? Wait on the Lord. Not
just wait around. On the Lord. Now this has nothing to do with passivity. It means whatever I do while it's
Saturday, I do with Him. I learn to work with Him even when He feels far away. I rest with Him. I try to
learn from Him. I ask questions of Him. I complain to Him. If I cannot connect with Him in any other
way, I complain to Him.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

So whatever your pain, whatever your rejection, whatever dream has died, whatever longing has not been
fulfilled, whatever your failure, whatever your regret, whatever your shame, whatever your
disappointment, it is not the end. It's only Saturday and deliverance is coming. So don't you give up. Don't
you despair. Don't you waver. Don't give in. Don't quit. Don't tank. Whatever you do, don't miss next
week because next week [Sunday] is the climax of the whole deal. You hold on to Jesus.

I would commend the whole thing to you.  Spend the 20 minutes and read the whole thing here.

Here is a link to the video, if you would prefer.