When the Sabbath Was Over

When the Sabbath Was Over
When the Sabbath was over, the women went to the tomb to prepare Jesus’ body for burial…When the Sabbath was over, the women went to say goodbye to their teacher one last time…When the Sabbath was over, everything was different…
The Gospel according to Mark starts out with just the simple phrase, “When the Sabbath was over…” But there is so much packed into there. The Sabbath was the law from God for the Jewish people to rest. It was a commandment that there be one day that there was no work done that there was nothing that interfered with spending time in communion with God. When the Sabbath was over…There were very strict laws about how to practice Sabbath—what you could do and what you could not. You could take so many steps, but you couldn’t exceed that…You spent the day in worship and communion with God not focusing on all of the distractions of life…Many people today don’t really observe the Sabbath. Life has gotten too busy, too fast, too hard, too competitive that when it comes to spending time with God, well that can just wait, can’t it? Or for those who do want to practice Sabbath, they’re told that they’re lazy or maybe even crazy…When the Sabbath was over, the women went to the tomb.
After everything that had transpired in the last few days…The women, Jesus’ followers still observed the Sabbath. They had watched their beloved teacher riding into the city of Jerusalem on a donkey and palm branches waving as the people heralded Jesus as a king with shouts of Hosanna! Glory to God in the Highest! But soon the mood of the week would change as Jesus didn’t cater to the demands of the world around…He didn’t cater to the unjust systems that were enforced by the money changers in the temple…He didn’t cater to the Roman authorities and claim Caesar as Lord…He didn’t stop preaching that the Kingdom of God was at hand because it made people uncomfortable…He didn’t stop doing or being who he was…And that was a problem for most people.
What Jesus said and did was extremely radical and threatening. He was threatening everyone’s way of life and way of thinking about who God is and what God does and people didn’t like it…As Jesus shared the Passover meal with his disciples in the upper room for what would be his last supper, Jesus knows what is to come and sends Judas out to do what he needs to do as he and his disciples go to the garden to pray…But the disciples couldn’t stay awake for even an hour to pray with Jesus and he struggled with what was going to happen alone…without his friends beside him…And as he was arrested and put to trial, his disciples deserted him…And as he took his last breath, he even cried out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”…And when the Sabbath was over, the women went to the tomb…
When the Sabbath was over, the women went to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body with burial spices. They had watched as Jesus’ body was laid in the tomb and then left with their grief to spend time in worship and prayer with God. When the Sabbath was over, they went to the tomb…and nothing would ever be the same.
It wasn’t just the lives of the women or the lives of the disciples that had been changed…The whole fabric of humanity…the whole fabric of creation was forever changed. What was once thought impossible or improbable became reality and became truth. No one ever expected that the Messiah would die…The Messiah was supposed to be the one who overthrew the government and raised God’s people up in power again…The Messiah was supposed to be a grand king, not a suffering servant…And when the Sabbath was over, the women went to the tomb…
And when they arrived at the tomb they discovered that the stone had been rolled away…What they thought they knew was changed…everything had changed…Not only was the Messiah the suffering servant and the Messiah had died, but something even more impossible had happened. The Jewish people believed in resurrection and hoped for the day when that would happen. The day of resurrection would come all at once for everyone and then judgment would happen in order to spend eternity with or without God…It wasn’t revolutionary to believe in resurrection and it wasn’t uncommon…As a matter of fact when Jesus met Mary & Martha at Lazarus’ grave, they said they believed in the resurrection and knew that the day would come when they would see him again…But what was not expected was for one person to be resurrected in the middle of history…For one person to be resurrected before everything else…And that is what changed history…The fabric of creation was changed…The kingdom of God is at hand and we can see glimpses of what this future kingdom will look like here and now…And when the Sabbath was over, the women went to the tomb to find the world completely different…
The Gospels according to Mark & John record what happened at the tomb differently…According to Mark, the women left and were didn’t tell anyone what they saw…According to John, the women told the disciples and the story spread…It’s the same choice that we have when we come to the tomb…
We come to the tomb this morning, when the Sabbath was over and see it empty and we have a choice…do we tell others what we have seen and what we have experienced or do we remain silent out of fear? The fabric of creation has been forever changed because of what Jesus has done and we are invited to join with Jesus to build the kingdom of God here on earth.
When the Sabbath was over the women came to the tomb and saw the stone rolled away… “Do not be alarmed…He is not here…He had been raised.” Christ the Lord is Risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!