Between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday

Easter looks different this year. The Coronavirus pandemic is preventing most of us from meeting at our churches, gathering for family meals, or participating in yearly egg hunts. Instead we stay home, eager for the day we're told we can safely come out of hiding and return to our lives again. We know our current circumstances won't last forever.

In some ways, perhaps this year we can better relate to that day over 2,000 years ago after Jesus had been crucified and died. Much like us, the disciples were locked inside, terrified for their safety if they walked out of the door. They could no longer travel with their Master and friends, listen to Him teach the masses, or celebrate the miracles they saw Him perform. Like many people now, they probably felt sorrowful, lost, or depressed.

Yet though our current circumstances have some similarities to that long ago day, there is also a significant difference. Most of us expect our days of quarantine to have an expiration date. At some point, we plan to leave our homes again and re-enter our lives. We picture ourselves visiting loved ones, returning to careers, laughing on summer nights as a band plays under the stars.

The disciples, however, had no reason to believe that their sorrow was only for a short time. Jesus, who had become the sole purpose of their lives, was gone. His disciples didn't know that in their deepest pain they were actually closest to a miracle. Not only would they soon see Jesus again, but He would send them back into the world with important work to do, places He wanted them to go, and people He specifically wanted them to meet.

Matthew 28:19: Therefore, go and make disciples in all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. 

You might be like the disciples and feel stuck in one of those in-between times when you can't see past this strange season of sorrow and isolation. You might be navigating clumsily through this time of so many unknowns.

Know that your grief and distress are natural in such painful, unnatural circumstances. But also try to remember that the disciples' story didn't end during that time between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday when they felt so without hope.

Like them, in our deepest pain, we might be closest to a miracle.