INTRODUCTION

Good Friday is traditionally the day when we remember the death of Jesus and Easter Sunday (or Resurrection Sunday) when Jesus rose from the dead. But today, I want to talk about the day no one talks about – the day in between Friday and Sunday: Saturday.

Because for the followers of Jesus, that Saturday must have felt like the end of everything… but it wasn’t.

1. FRIDAY IS DEVASTATING, BUT IT’S NOT THE END

Luke 23:50–55 (ESV)
[50] Now there was a man named Joseph, from the Jewish town of Arimathea. He was a member of the council, a good and righteous man, [51] who had not consented to their decision and action; and he was looking for the kingdom of God. [52] This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. [53] Then he took it down and wrapped it in a linen shroud and laid him in a tomb cut in stone, where no one had ever yet been laid. [54] It was the day of Preparation, and the Sabbath was beginning. [55] The women who had come with him from Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how his body was laid. 

A bit of an anticlimax: No answers, no miracles, no hope – just disillusionment, brokenness grief, and despair.

Maybe you’ve experienced a “Friday”. A death in your life, a relationship that shattered, a diagnosis that wrecked you, a dream that died, complete brokenness (maybe even of your own making)…

But here’s the truth: Friday is not the end of the story. It never has been. The cross looked like a complete defeat – Jesus had lost (or so it seemed), but God was just getting started.

2. SATURDAY IS SILENT, BUT IT’S NOT EMPTY

This is where we live much of our lives – in the ‘Saturday’ (the “in-between”). Where the pain of Friday is still fresh, and the promise of Sunday hasn’t arrived.

I believe God does His deepest most powerful work in us, in the Saturdays of our lives.

The disciples had no idea that resurrection was just around the corner. They didn’t know that death had already been defeated, that hell was trembling, that Jesus had defeated death. To them, Saturday just felt hopeless.

Maybe that’s where you are right now – In the silence. In the unspectacular, in the brokenness. You believe God exists. You even believe in resurrection (in theory), but it hasn’t touched your life yet.

Psalm 27:13 (NIV)
[13] I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

What was Jesus doing in between the death and resurrection?

– He descended to the realm of the dead
– He proclaimed victory to imprisoned spirits
– He defeated death and darkness
– He liberated the righteous who died before Him

God does His deepest work in between Friday and Sunday, in between death and resurrection. Saturday might feel like the end, but it’s the setup for a miracle, for the resurrection!

3. SUNDAY ALWAYS COMES AFTER SATURDAY

Genesis 8:22 (ESV)
[22] While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.

Luke 24:1–12 (ESV)
[1] 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 found the 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 frightened 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. [10] Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles, [11] but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. [12] But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had happened.

– This is the promise of Easter: death has not won, pain is not permanent, silence is not abandonment… and even when we can’t see it, God is moving.

Maybe today, you’re in a “Saturday” season of your life. But I promise you this:

– Sunday always comes after Saturday.
– Jesus is risen, therefore Hope is alive for those who follow Him.

4. WHERE THERE IS A DEATH, THERE IS ALWAYS A RESURRECTION

Where there is a death, there is always a resurrection for those who have surrendered their lives to Jesus.

John 11:25–26 (ESV) [Jesus’ words to Martha]
[25] Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. [26] Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?’

Do you believe this?

LIVING IN ‘THE HOPE BETWEEN’ 

In the 1950s, Curt Richter, a Harvard graduate and Johns Hopkins scientist did a series of experiments that tested how long rats could swim in high-sided buckets of circulating water before drowning. Dr. Richter found that, under normal conditions, a rat could swim for an average of 15 minutes before giving up and sinking. However, if he rescued the rats just before drowning, dried them off, let them rest briefly, and then put them back into the same buckets of circulating water, the rats could swim an average of 60 hours. If a rat was given hope, it would survive 240 times longer than if it was hope-less. The only conclusion that the scientists came to was that rats were able to swim longer because they were given hope. 

In the ‘Saturdays’ of your life – trust in the character of God and stay in hope!

Psalm 33:20-22 (NLT)
[20] We put our hope in the LORD. He is our help and our shield. [21] In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. [22] Let your unfailing love surround us, LORD, for our hope is in you alone.

Psalm 39:7 (NLT)  
[7] And so, Lord, where do I put my hope? My only hope is in you.

Romans 15:13 (NLT)
[13] I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.

CONCLUSION

– We are ‘resurrection’ people, living in a world that still feels like Saturday.
– We are called to carry the message of resurrection into every place that feels dead.
– We believe in a God who brings beauty from ashes, joy from mourning, life from the grave.
– You may not see it yet – but resurrection is on the way.
– There is always a resurrection for those who are in Jesus.

Prayer:
“Lord, we bring You our Saturdays – the silence, the questions, the heartbreaks. We trust You, even when we can’t see the end of the story. We believe that You are the God of resurrection, and we hold on to hope today, in Jesus’ name. Amen.”

(Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay)