Blessed are the merciful,
for they shall receive mercy.
When we think of Holy Saturday, we wonder, what was going on? Let's wonder at some possibilities, but start with our Rock Solid Foundation. With certainty, we can know: People were thinking and going over all of their thoughts of Good Friday and what Jesus had done to make us warm, to love Jesus. Jesus is and was the Wonderful Light of God we want for our children. His Goodness we hold up like a flame for others to be Loved.
Remember, a great multitude were there on Good Friday.
Luke 23:27
27 And there followed him a great multitude of the people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for him.
28 But turning to them Jesus said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children."
This Biblical section, Luke 23:27, yesterday, today and tomorrow many times, yet defines Holy Saturday. We always say mankind is a word including all, yet we probably agree, men wept Holy Saturday and Good Friday. Scripture expects us to use our love and heart.
Josephus, Judean General and Roman Historian to 3 Roman Emperors, described a great multitude as 2 million people based upon the food records researched and offerings purchased. When we remember the feeding of the multitude, Scriptures tell us Jesus called the people, "I have compassion on the crowd." And then the Bible is succinct to give us the detail, Jesus was feeding four thousand once and five thousand another time. Luke 6 defines a great multitude better for us:
Luke 6: 17b-19
a great multitude of people from
all Judea
and Jerusalem
and the seacoast of Tyre
and Sidon,
18 who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases.
And those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. 19 And all the crowd sought to touch him, for power came out from him and healed them all.
Good Friday involves nations being part of Jesus carrying the cross and being crucified. Holy Saturday has even more thinking about Jesus, because the multitude who were eyewitnesses are telling their emotional and spiritual pain.
Matthew 27
Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. 46And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
The Steadfast Love of God
He will never leave you nor forsake you
His mercies renew every day
We all wonder, like Holy Saturday, about our dark day and times:
Luke 23:27-31
27 And there followed him a great multitude of the people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for him. 28 But turning to them Jesus said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. 29 For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ 30 Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ 31 For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?”
Where was the Mercy of Our Father?
Luke 1 defines Jesus, just as John 1 calls Jesus Light of the world
and Light of mankind.
Luke 1
To give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins,
78 because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high
79 to give light to those who sit in darkness
and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace
Luke 23
Tells us the light had failed
darkness was on the land
44 It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, 45 while the sun's light failed.
And the curtain of the temple was torn in two.
46 Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said,
“Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!”
And having said this he breathed his last.
47 Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, “Certainly this man was innocent!”
48 And all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts.
49 And all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him
from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things.
Where was the Mercy of Our Father?
If we do not ask God our questions, and simply trust, God is harsh. Implacable.
Set in His Plan. We all have to move for God, then we haven't really asked God our questions.
And we become the 1 mere talent entrusted to the poor servant. Abraham argued with God to be merciful to a city. To be God Abraham trusted Him to be. And yet, as flawed human beings, Abraham didn't argue with God about Isaac needing a ram to appear miraculously. God, Jesus informs us, is our friend and trouble Him to the last hour, last minute.
Ask God your tough questions with love and respect.
Psalm 18
In my distress I called upon the Lord;
to my God I cried for help.
From His Temple He heard my voice,
and my cry to Him reached His Ears.
7 Then the earth reeled and rocked;
the foundations also of the mountains trembled
and quaked, because he was angry.
8 Smoke went up from his nostrils,
and devouring fire from his mouth;
glowing coals flamed forth from him.
9 He bowed the heavens and came down;
thick darkness was under his feet.
10 He rode on a cherub and flew;
he came swiftly on the wings of the wind.
11 He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him,
thick clouds dark with water.
12 Out of the brightness before him
hailstones and coals of fire broke through his clouds.
13 The Lord also thundered in the heavens,
and the Most High uttered his voice,
hailstones and coals of fire.
14 And he sent out his arrows and scattered them;
he flashed forth lightnings and routed them.
15 Then the channels of the sea were seen,
and the foundations of the world were laid bare
at your rebuke, O Lord,
at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.
16 He sent from on high, he took me;
he drew me out of many waters.
17 He rescued me from my strong enemy
and from those who hated me,
for they were too mighty for me.
18 They confronted me in the day of my calamity,
but the Lord was my support.
19 He brought me out into a broad place;
he rescued me, because he delighted in me.
20 The Lord dealt with me according to my righteousness;
according to the cleanness of my hands he rewarded me.
21 For I have kept the ways of the Lord,
and have not wickedly departed from my God.
22 For all his rules were before me,
and his statutes I did not put away from me.
23 I was blameless before him,
and I kept myself from my guilt.
24 So the Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness,
according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.
25 With the merciful you show yourself merciful;
with the blameless man you show yourself blameless;
26 with the purified you show yourself pure
The Mercy of the Lord is Seen,
Jesus' prayers begin again
Matthew 27 numeric order
1 And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink.
2 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.
And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.
Luke 19:40
He said in reply, “I tell you, if they keep silent, the stones will cry out!”
3 The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many.
The earthquake. NBC reports.
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/47555983/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/quake-reveals-day-jesus-crucifixion-researchers-believe/#.VPKnUC6gZpg
To analyze earthquake activity in the region, geologist Jefferson Williams of Supersonic Geophysical and colleagues Markus Schwab and Achim Brauer of the German Research Center for Geosciences studied three cores from the beach of the Ein Gedi Spa adjacent to the Dead Sea.
Varves, which are annual layers of deposition in the sediments, reveal that at least two major earthquakes affected the core: a widespread earthquake in 31 B.C. and a seismic event that happened sometime between the years 26 and 36.
The latter period occurred during “the years when Pontius Pilate was procurator of Judea and when the earthquake of the Gospel of Matthew is historically constrained,” Williams said.
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"The day and date of the crucifixion (Good Friday) are known with a fair degree of precision," he said. But the year has been in question.
In terms of textual clues to the date of the crucifixion, Williams quoted a Nature paper authored by Colin Humphreys and Graeme Waddington. Williams summarized their work as follows:
All four gospels and Tacitus in Annals (XV, 44) agree that the crucifixion occurred when Pontius Pilate was procurator of Judea from A.D. 26 to 36.
All four gospels say the crucifixion occurred on a Friday.
All four gospels agree that Jesus died a few hours before the beginning of the Jewish Sabbath (nightfall on a Friday).
The synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) indicate that Jesus died before nightfall on the 14th day of Nisan, right before the start of the Passover meal.
John’s gospel differs from the synoptics, apparently indicating that Jesus died before nightfall on the 15th day of Nisan.
When data about the Jewish calendar and astronomical calculations are factored in, a handful of possible dates result, with Friday, April 3, 33 A.D., being the best match, according to the researchers.
4. When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”
5 There were also many women there, looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee,
6 (ongoing) ministering to him, among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph and the mother of the sons of Zebedee
Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow we minister to Jesus when we attend to His Sacrifice with prayer, memory, thoughts, teaching our family, attending Lent Services, attending Easter, Easter celebration and proclaiming His Love.
Luke 23
49 And all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him
from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things.
Numeric Blessings of God's mercy in Matthew 27
7 When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who also was a disciple of Jesus. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him.
John the Baptist was denied burial, eventually they were given a headless corpse.
Why didn't the Jews object?
To be denied burial was the most humiliating indignity offered to the deceased, for it meant "to become food for beasts of prey" (Deut. xxviii. 26; I Kings xiii. 22, xiv. 11, xxi. 24; II Kings ix. 34-37; Jer. vii. 33; viii. 1, 2; ix. 21 [22]; xiv. 16; Ezek. xxix. 5; Ps. lxxix. 2, 3).
The law, therefore, requires even the criminal to be buried who has been put to death (Deut. xxi. 23). So, too, the slain enemy was buried (I Kings xi. 15; Ezek. xxxix. 15), not merely because the dead body defiled the land, but from a feeling of compassion, as is seen in the case of Rizpah (II Sam. xxi. 10; compare Josephus, "B. J." iv. 5, § 2).
While it was incumbent upon the relatives to bury their dead (Gen. xxiii. 3, xxv. 9, 1. 7; I Macc. ii. 70; Tobit vi. 15, xiv. 11) Jesus brothers, who could have attended this. had fled.
8 And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut in the rock.
The law of burial is derived from:
Deuteronomy. xxi. 23, "Thou shalt bury him on that day,"
Construed as a law affecting all men. The atoning power of the ground per se was attributed to Palestine exclusively. This view concerning the atoning effect of the decaying process induced some to bring the body into close contact with the earth by either having the coffin perforated or by dispensing with the coffin altogether. Earth of the Holy Land, as based upon Deuteronomy 32.43, = "The earth shall atone for his people."
In Jesus Christ, Messiah of God, bringing salvation to the world, the earth cannot atone for Him. The created does not serve The Creator, God Almighty.
9 And he rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away.
10 Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb.
11 The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, “Sir, we remember how that impostor said, while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise.’ Therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’ and the last fraud will be worse than the first.”
Pilate said to them, “You have a guard of soldiers. Go, make it as secure as you can.” So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard.
Romans 8:28
All things work together for good,
for those who love the Lord,
and work according to His Purpose.
Romans 8:28
All things work together for good,
for those who love the Lord,
and work according to His Purpose.
Abba, Father,
Blessed are You, Lord Father our God,
Blessed is Your Son, Jesus.
We ask You to put Your Name,
"Jesus"
upon us
and say, "I will Bless them."
The Lord bless you and keep you
The Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you
and give you peace.
Let Your Heavenly Kingdom come,
Let Your Will be done,
on earth
as in Heaven.
Thank You for Your Son's Life,
He has given us immeasurably more
than all we ask or imagine,
according to His power that is at work within us,
To our Father and Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit,
be the glory in the church and
in Christ Jesus throughout all generations,
forever and ever. Amen
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