How many times in your life have you lived with a sense that
‘something is changing’? You might sense
a subtle change in a spouse’s behavior, a friend is less available, or you
might find yourself further out of the loop in the workplace. Something is happening. You’re sure of it but if asked for proof you
don’t quite have anything concrete. It’s
just a feeling, a sense of something that’s out of the ordinary. Your antenna goes up. If you do confide in someone they might think
you’re trying to borrow trouble but deep inside there is a gnawing unrest that
can’t be explained away. There’s enough evidence to satisfy your gut feeling
but not enough to persuade anyone else.
It’s a time when ‘what was’ starts to slowly morph into ‘what’s
next’. But it’s a troubling time. It’s
what I call ‘in between time’. It can be
simply awful when fears take over, strangling any attempt at forward
motion. Or it can be a time when someone
can stare their fears in the face thwarting whatever force is trying to take
them down.
Things change. All
the time.
I’m writing this on Good Friday. If we were in Jerusalem on this day way back when we’d
certainly see and smell change in the air. What we knew was ending. Some else was brewing. Jesus goes into the tomb. And ‘in between’ time begins. “What’s next” had to be the primary thought
going through the mind of anyone close to Jesus. Was it all over? Had we just wasted three
years of our life? Death is pretty
final. The Romans and the Jewish leaders appear to have the upper hand. Now what?
Am I next? Where can I hide?
Who knows what happened in the ‘in between time’ starting
late Friday afternoon and ending on what we now knows as Easter morning? How many tears were shed and how many fingers
were pointed? How much faith was
left?
It’s one of the great unknowns of scripture. My guess is that fear was present. There was
a great cloud of unknowing hovering. Some
may have shown false bravado and others might have acted as if they had been
crucified and buried, not Jesus. We don’t know.
All we do know is that anyone close to Jesus had to live in and through
this ‘in between time’ where ‘what was’ no longer exists and ‘what’s next’ has
not yet been completely revealed.
I’m thinking about this a lot lately. I see lots of people going through an ‘in
between time’. Most struggle mightily
with it.
As we look at Scripture the time between the death and
resurrection of Jesus doesn’t have a whole lot written about it. We don’t know what was going on in the hearts
and minds of those who loved Jesus the most.
Here’s what we do know. After Jesus died some took it upon themselves
to take the next best step. They asked
for the body and did what they could before Sabbath to do a burial. There wasn’t time to do it completely right
but they did what they could. This was a
courageous step by the way. They had to
overcome fear in order to do what was right.
Those who didn’t bury Jesus seemed to have gathered together
in accordance with Sabbath customs. They
relied on religious and cultural habit to order their time. Sometimes in the ordinary practice of what we
know is true and good we can find ways to live in the ‘in between time’.
When Sabbath was over, the women went to finish the task of
preparing the body. They put their life
into motion, doing the right thing as prescribed by their faith.
So in the ‘in between time’ between death and resurrection
we see some courageous action and reliance on religious habit even in the face
of doubt and pain. Faith and Action. Action and Faith.
What do we do when we face the ‘in between times’ of life? We do the next right thing, in the right way,
with the right attitude. And we fall back
into the faith habits of our life hoping that in the familiar things God will
speak to us. We put our life into motion and rely on what we know is true, and
good and noble to guide us.
www.mike-ascend.blogspot.com
