Saturday Hope
As his [Jesus’] body was taken away, the women from Galilee followed and saw the tomb where his body was placed. Then they went home and prepared spices and ointments to anoint his body. But by the time they were finished the Sabbath had begun, so they rested as required by law. Luke 23:55-56 NLT
Hope can be easy when what we hope for is staring us in the face, when the stakes are low and the timeline short. Hope can be easy when all the variables are on the table and we can predict the outcome. When our need is simple and obtainable and we have a clear handle on our situation, we may think we don’t even need hope. We find ourselves confident in our own abilities rather than confident in Jesus, our Living Hope. This is a dangerous place to be because, at some point, we will be in a really tough spot. A spot where we can’t see what we hope for and have no handle at all on our situation. A spot where hope is what we need most. A spot where we must hold on and wait for hope to become visible, tangible, and within our grasp.
That must be where these faithful women found themselves on the Sabbath following Jesus’ crucifixion. Imagine them staggering home late Friday afternoon, dusty and tired, shell-shocked and saddened. They had just witnessed the brutal execution of an innocent man, someone they dearly loved—the Son of God! They had experienced frightening midday darkness and a jarring earthquake. Standing around the foot of the cross they would have been surrounded by Roman soldiers carrying out their cruel punishment while the Savior’s blood and sweat splattered on unforgiving ground. Don’t you think they were emotionally spent, battered and bruised, grieving and worn? Surely they were physically exhausted, hungry and shaking, longing for deep body and soul rest that would certainly not come at that moment of total upheaval. They must have been spiritually confused, yearning for insight into all they had just witnessed. And yet, what did they do? One simple thing. One thing they had learned and practiced all their lives. One thing they saw Jesus model when He walked the earth. In obedience, they rested. And they waited.
How strangely counterintuitive. How like our God, though. When everything in us screams, “Say something! Go somewhere! Do something!” He says, “Wait. Rest. Obey. Your Hope is here.”
Hoping and waiting go hand in hand. We see this truth throughout God’s Word. Even from an earthly standpoint, hoping means waiting! If we aren’t in a position of waiting for what is hoped for, then we have either already obtained it, or it’s not worth waiting for. The challenge for us as followers of Jesus is to continually deposit all we hope for into the capable hands of our Living Hope, and then—like Mary Magdalene, Salome, and the other Mary—wait.
We must rest in our uncertain situation, certain of our Living Hope.
The author of Psalm 119 was clearly a lover of God and a lover of His Word. And thankfully, for us, he was an honest recorder of his own spiritual struggles. There are two types of waiting described in this verse, one in the first half and one in the second:
I am worn out waiting for your rescue, but I have put my hope in your word. Psalm 119:81 NLT
The Hebrew word used to convey waiting in the first half is kalah, suggesting the idea of something or someone being consumed, spent, or used up. It can imply wasting away or exhaustion. This part of Psalm 119:81 expresses an agonized wait, however, the pivotal word in the verse is ‘but.’ “But I have put my hope in your word.”
That brings us to the second type of waiting. The Hebrew word used here for hope is yachal, meaning to wait, hope, expect. Hoping and waiting go hand in hand.
Mary Magdalene and the other women must have experienced both types of waiting as they obediently observed the Sabbath. They undoubtedly felt like the rug had been yanked out from under them, that the world was against them, like all hope was lost. At the same time, we have to wonder, did a flicker of hope blaze within them? They had walked with the Living God. They heard words of life flow from His mouth. They experienced supernatural displays of God’s broken heart signaling to the watching world that this was no ordinary death. As they observed that Sabbath, don’t you wonder what words from Scripture flowed through their hearts and from their mouths? What words of truth, words of life, words of hope did they breathe as they waited?
What do you wait in hope for today?
When you find yourself longing for God’s divine intervention in your life, hoping and waiting for the realization of your deepest needs and desires, where do you turn to feed your hope?
For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope. Romans 15:4 NIV
Let all that I am wait quietly before my God, for my hope is in him. Psalm 62:5 NLT
We can wait with confident hope dear friends—because Sunday is coming!