The Sunday People

“I don’t know what it is. It doesn’t make sense. It’s confusing. Give me clarity. Ambiguity is alarming. I’m afraid.” This is the way life looked for The Saturday People who felt helpless and hopeless as the tomb was sealed and their hopes buried with their friend and teacher. And their confusion was contagious as the news spread: Jesus is dead. The adventure is over. Now what?

Feelings of confusion and despair felt by those people long ago are of historical interest to those who have never had a stone roll over them as it sealed the tomb of their dreams. But it’s likely that you have had the experience, that you know what it feels like to grieve love’s death, to cry over a relationship ended, to feel the earth shake when certainty turns to doubt. Just as the image above offers no assurance or direction or meaning, so it was with The Saturday People. The joy of yesterday turned into the brutal reality of today.

But what they forgot about was the promise of tomorrow. A very wise person once said that sometimes the only way out of a bad situation is through it. Sometimes we just have to wait in the darkness before light comes. Out of the grief of loss, the despair of disappointment we become The Sunday People, not of our own doing, but because Light flooded the world when the stone rolled away. So, have courage in the waiting, hope in uncertainty, faith in moments of fear, for those inevitable times of deep disappointment are transforming us into Sunday People. There can be no resurrection unless there is crucifixion, no transformation unless we walk through the darkness into the light. Wait in faith and hope. Tomorrow comes and The Sunday People will sing — because he lives, I can face tomorrow.

Wait. Don’t be afraid. The Light will come.