It is Passover.

It is Easter weekend.

As Christians, we know what happened that weekend and we know why we celebrate it. We have been told the story, “The Greatest Story Ever Told” for most of our lives. We know it.

Don’t we?

We know about the last supper.

We know about the Garden.

We know about Judas and the 30 pieces of silver.

Peter.

We know of the trials and the freeing of Barabbas and the scourging and the washing of Pilot’s hands.

We know of the stations of the cross, the nails, the last words.

We know he was set in the tomb, the stone rolled to cover the opening and the Roman guards.

We know of Mary and the discovery, the words he spoke, Thomas having to touch his hands and feet.

We know the whole story. Don’t we?

What are we missing?

Maundy Thursday…Good Friday…Easter Sunday….

What of Saturday?

As stories of the resurrection abound and Easter wishes are made this weekend, let’s look into that part of the story which you probably won’t find anywhere else.

Saturday.

By the time Jesus was taken from the cross, it was late on Friday afternoon, maybe early Friday evening. There wasn’t much time and His body was rushed to the tomb. Time was so short, before the start of Sabbath, that properly preparing the body wasn’t possible.

That night, Friday night, must have been awful for the family, friends and disciples of Jesus. On Thursday night, Jesus was the focus of the manhunt. While the 12 were there, in the Garden, only Jesus was taken but now, with the trial and crucifixion complete, the remaining disciples must have been terrified.

They had just seen the one they followed, the one in whom they believed, their friend, the one for whom they had left their lives, their jobs and their families to follow, killed. Brutally killed, Flogged, bloody, dirty, the crown of thorns cutting into his head and face, nailed to a wooden cross and eventually, having his side pierced by a spear.

Were they next? Would THEY be taken? Would THEY meet the same fate?

They had to wonder. Wouldn’t you, in that position, wonder?

Peter had, after all, denied 3 times that he even KNEW Jesus. HE was afraid. Judas couldn’t live with his role even though Jesus himself told Judas to do what he must do.

We don’t know exactly where they went or stayed. They wanted, I’m sure, to get away from there but, it was the Sabbath and travel was against the laws. They were trapped either in Jerusalem or just on the outskirts. Outdoors, they would have been conspicuous. 11 men, 1 or 2 women. Someone would have recognized them. Someone would have raised a ruckus.

Indoors would have been better. Within the walls of Jerusalem but close enough to the gates to run if need be.

Chances are they were together, safety in numbers but hidden. It is doubtful that they were thinking of the 3^rd day or remembering the words of their Rabbi. They were thinking only of getting through the night and maybe, just maybe, of what Saturday held. It’s doubtful too that they slept that night.

Would you have slept? COULD you have slept?

Saturday morning. Nobody came for them in the night. Now it was Saturday and probably, after what one could suspect was a sleepless and silent night or terror, this would be the first time they allowed themselves to speak of what had happened. Most likely, they questioned their own actions. Their inaction. Why it happened and what they could have done, should have done(?) to prevent it.

Did they blame themselves? Did they blame Judas? The Romans? The Jews? Pilate, Herod? Those who yelled for the life of Barabbas and to crucify Jesus?

One suspects they did not eat. Maybe they had food, maybe not but they couldn’t send anyone out to gather a morsel because, like travel on the Sabbath, gathering or cooking food was also forbidden.  They talked, whispered so as not to be heard, about what they would do next.

What WOULD they do? Where COULD they GO without being recognized. Home? No, too many would know them and who they had been with. It’s a fair bet that they decided to split up, scatter themselves to the winds, try to blend in, try not to be noticed or recognized.

Imagine yourself as one of them.

In the back of your mind, you remember Jesus telling you that on the 3^rd day, he would rise and live again. Do you believe it?

You were there when he healed the sick. You were there when he made the cripple walk again. You saw the miracles. You saw him walk on water. YOU were there when he raised Lazarus from the dead. HE RAISED LAZARUS FROM THE DEAD but, Lazarus was just an average dead man. Nothing special. Clearly nothing special about the WAY Lazarus died.

Jesus? Well, that was another matter.

Jesus was CRUCIFIED…beaten, broken almost beyond recognition. You don’t come back from THAT. It’s too much. The last time you saw him, his body, well…THAT image is seared into your memory. That is an image you will never forget and one that you will live with the rest of your life but, no…No man, not even Jesus, comes back from that.

The sanitized version of the story would lead one to believe that they simply waited for Sunday to see what would, or would not happen but that seems far from what is most probable.

They didn’t know, didn’t understand. They didn’t realize that THEIR words would lead to a NEW religion. They didn’t know Christianity or think of it. These were Jews and they thought of Jesus, rightly, as a Jew and eventually, the stories they would tell and the word they would spread would be stories and words OF a Jew.

This group stayed, most likely IN Jerusalem that day because they still needed to anoint the body of Jesus on Sunday, after the Sabbath. The women would do it. Nobody would be looking for or wishing harm to the women. The men, once it was done and the women returned, in the morning, would leave and try to make their way.

They weren’t likely to be worried about not living long enough to spread the message. They would have been more worried about not living long enough to get out of town. On THAT Saturday, they measured their lives no further than the next day.

Yes, they had heard Jesus say he would rise, on the 3^rd day, but that would take a miracle. An unimaginable miracle and having seen what they saw on Friday, well, that was certainly not the start of a miracle. Not in their minds.

They were, after all, human.

Think of it. Put yourself in their place. They had no way of knowing that the next day, everything would change. They had no way of knowing that their despair would turn to elation. They couldn’t have known, as mere humans, that the next day, they would witness the miracle, the truth and the light.

They were filled with guilt, anger, terror, questions and self doubt.

That was the plan.

Even later in their lives they would not fully grasp that plan as they would assess blame for the death of Jesus. They would blame their own people, Caiaphas and the elder Rabbis, but just as they would not understand it so many years later, they couldn’t have understood it on that Saturday.

They wanted to believe but at that time, on THAT day, they could see no reason to do so.

It was God’s plan that they be driven to the deepest depths of doubt and all the rest. If they weren’t driven to the doubt, the absolute disbelief in everything they had seen Jesus do or heard him say, how could they then be lifted to being greater than they had ever imagined they could be?

The very thought of their own survival had to be erased on Saturday so that what they had no idea was coming could happen on Sunday. They must have no way of knowing that, in a short 24 hours they would go from being afraid of dying because of their association with Jesus to being willing to die for it.

Eventually, nearly all of them WOULD die for spreading the word. Some would die as Jesus did. Others by the spear, others by stoning. All would be given the option of denouncing their belief but none of them did.

While we all know the events and details of what led up to that Friday and what happened ON that Friday…As well as we know what happened on that Sunday and after that Sunday but, on that Saturday, that particular Saturday…well…

Christians herald the resurrection as THE miracle but I suggest that the Saturday before the resurrection was every bit as big and important a part of the miracle as THE miracle itself. Just as God was responsible for the death and resurrection of Jesus, He too took from and resurrected the spirits of the disciples.

To our Jewish friends, Happy Passover.

To our Christian friends, Happy Easter.

Two religions guided by the hand of a single God.