Day 109 The Beauty of Grief

4/19/2025

 "Weeping may endure for a night, 

but joy comes in the morning."

Psalm 30:5

Following the crucifixion, after the body had been taken away for burial, the women hurried home to prepare spices and oils to anoint Jesus' body, because Sabbath day was beginning soon. In the meantime, Joseph of Arimathea, a follower of Jesus, along with Nicodemus, both respected members of the Sanhedrin, came secretly to Pilate to ask for the body of Jesus. According to the account found in John 19:38-42, they came at night bringing along a mixture of myrrh and aloes, and they bound Jesus' body in strips of linen with the spices, as was the custom for burial. They placed him in a new garden tomb in which no one had lain. Sabbath begins in the evening at 6 pm, and on the Sabbath Day, God commands His people to rest and cease all work, so all anyone can do is rest. 

I can imagine all the thoughts going through the minds of the disciples, the women who followed and loved Him, as well as true friends who had not betrayed Him or who had not stood in agreement with the crowd who shouted "Crucify Him, Crucify Him!" We know that Judas, His betrayer, hung himself, because He couldn't take back what he had done. Peter must have been deeply troubled about his own denial of Jesus, just as Jesus had prophesied, because in Matthew 26:75, it says "And he went outside and wept bitterly." I wonder if suicide ran through his head?! As for the other disciples, they ran away to escape possible arrest themselves, just as prophesied in the scriptures in Zechariah 13:7: "Then Jesus said to them, "You will all fall away because of Me this night. For it is written, 'I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.'"

At that point, when they all scattered, I wonder how all the men felt, seeing that they all had earlier vowed to Jesus that they would never desert him, even to the point of death, which He forewarned would eventually happen to His followers. Upon hearing those words and having a little time to think about the possibility after seeing Jesus arrested, what horror might they rehearse in their minds. Christians today in some countries are hunted down, imprisoned, tortured in horrific ways. Something we in the Western part of the world would have consider an impossibility. Yet, today it is being played out before our eyes, as is the hate of antisemitism here in the west. As for the disciples of Jesus, they now understood a little better that His fate may very well be their ending. Perhaps they began to question where they went from here! Who knows, perhaps we may just as easily have fallen into doubt and despair. People today certainly choose to believe bad reports, and blind their eyes to obvious evil in our world today, even the United States. I choose to believe that maybe Matthew or John were reminding themselves of what Jesus said while He was alive and questioning what He did that was so bad that the religious leaders wanted to kill Him. I'm sure they sensed their hypocrisy and the jealousy they felt. After all, if the people followed Jesus, where would they find their livelihood? In many ways, nothing has changed, even in the church today.

Today is the last day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, but today in Bill's message at Jacob's Tent, we realized that God is working on our hearts, and the old leaven may still remain. Anything that is allowed to rise up inside us and take the focus away from our service to Yeshua needs to be cleansed from our lives. The closer we come to the time of His appearing, the more He speaks into our lives, if we spend our time in His presence. Fellowship with Jesus, with Abba Father, in the presence of Holy Spirit is a beautiful feeling. It is refreshing and it is cleansing. Repentance must always be at the forefront of revival. 

Tomorrow we celebrate the resurrection of our Savior. The stone will be rolled away, and the hope of many will be restored. Many will be attending services who never darken the doorway of a church except on Easter and at Christmas. They are missing out. I pray that whoever reads this blog will find their way to a local assembly tomorrow to join in the celebration of our Risen King. Let us exalt Him, for He is One found worthy of all blessing, honor, and praise. 

^{John 16:16-24}

 ¹⁶ “A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me, because I go to the Father.”

¹⁷ Then some of His disciples said among themselves, “What is this that He says to us, ‘A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me’; and, ‘because I go to the Father’?” ¹⁸ They said therefore, “What is this that He says, ‘A little while’? We do not know what He is saying.”

¹⁹ Now Jesus knew that they desired to ask Him, and He said to them, “Are you inquiring among yourselves about what I said, ‘A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me’? ²⁰ Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy. ²¹ A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. ²² Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.

²³ “And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. ²⁴ Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.