Doubt Saturday

First off, in terms of remembering important events or principles, Easter is the most important holiday of the year. What would our faith be without the events that we remember during this season?

Yesterday was Good Friday. Good Friday is an important day. It marks the day when the price of our sins was paid. In full. To put it simply - we messed up, and someone had to pay for it. Christ did that. For every single one of us, in all of history. Doesn't that sound like something we should think about every now and again?

So Good Friday and Easter Sunday are very important days, and we should use this time to reflect on what Christ has done for us. But today, I read a blog post about a very insightful topic: Doubt Saturday. In other words, the time between Good Friday and Easter Sunday - which would be today. I think this is a simple, but important concept. This is what the blog said:

The day between, the day of doubt, the day of frustration and questions and anguish, is just as important as the days surrounding it. You can’t have Easter Sunday without Good Friday, they say, but Easter Sunday wouldn’t nearly have its impact without faith-building Doubt Saturday. When God’s promises seem anything but achievable, and yet you still hold on to Him, seeing them come true in the end — even if it’s totally different than what you expected — is an incomparable joy.

I encourage you to read the whole thing here.

So what's being said here? Christ died, and then he rose again, but it didn't all happen at once. He waited. He didn't come out of the tomb the very next morning. There was a day of silence.

Let's put ourselves in the disciples' shoes for a moment here. Everything Jesus had said had begun to come true, but I don't think they quite understood yet. Nevertheless, they knew that their Savior was dead. Imagine how heartbroken, disappointed, confused, and utterly helpless they must have felt.

This was a dark day in history. It was starting to look like evil had won. Faith seemed pointless at this point. Did Peter still hold out hope when it seemed like all was lost? Did John expect Jesus to come back? We don't know the answers to those questions, but even if the answers are yes, they must have doubted, or at least had some confusion. This day, then, provides the  ultimate test of faith. Will we stand firm even when it looks like our Savior has been defeated?

To me, this is what Doubt Saturday represents. There were questions. There was doubt. There was pain. Yet, this was all part of the glorious plan. When Jesus showed up on Easter, imagine the joy of his followers. Their faith was proven. The doubt was worth it, because it built their faith. It allowed them to understand the weight of what had happened. The same is true for us, as well. 

Sometimes we go through a Doubt Saturday. I know I've had my share of dark days. The reason I bring up this idea, though, is to shine a ray of hope. The frustrations, confusion, and doubt drag us down, but Easter is coming. Jesus conquered death on that first Easter Sunday, and he'll continue to conquer the death in us when we hold onto faith - and when he does, we'll truly be able to marvel at it. We'll truly have joy, peace, and hope.

Don't lose faith. Tomorrow will come, and it'll be clearer than ever that Christ truly is risen.