A lot can change in the space of three days. If we stop and reflect on the events of the first Easter, so many incredible things unfolded over those three significant days.
FRIDAY – Today we call it ‘Good Friday’ but it was a dark day, filled with pain and sorrow. For the followers of Jesus at that time, the Cross meant great loss. Their master and teacher died a brutal death as a public spectacle. It was a shocking end that no one had anticipated.
SATURDAY – If you read the Gospel narrative, you find a number of Jesus’ followers behind closed doors asking, ‘What now?’ They were numb with confusion and despair, with no hope or certainty for the future.
SUNDAY – This was the game-changer. Today we celebrate Resurrection Sunday, when Jesus defied the odds and defeated death, giving us eternal hope. Sunday is the day of transformation. His resurrection took a frightened bunch of Jesus followers, and turned them into a powerful force, that would rather die than deny Him.
We all have to face our Fridays – those sombre days when we receive devastating news that strikes us to the core; followed by the Saturdays, where we find ourselves in a state of chaos, gripped with overwhelming fear and confusion.
The dark Fridays and Saturdays are guaranteed to happen to us all, but the big question is, will we embrace the hope that comes on the third day?
The big story of Easter is so succinctly summarised by the angel at the tomb on Resurrection Sunday who declared, ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ (Luke 24:7 (NIV)
Our faith is built on that third day, when everything radically changed through Jesus. Death turns to Life. Despair turns to Hope. The apparent end becomes a new beginning. It’s time to leave the sorrow of Friday and the confusion of Saturday, and enter the hope of Sunday– the third day!
– Pastor Wayne Alcorn, National President
Australian Christian Churches
