I can't even imagine what Saturday must have been like for those first men and women who followed Jesus.  They had seen Him die on Friday.  They had watched as His body had been placed in Joseph's tomb.  They had gone home, gone inside and locked the doors.  Then they waited.  But for what?  As far as they knew it was all over.

They had thought Jesus was the Messiah.  He had told them this would happen--that he would be arrested, beaten and crucified.  He had told them He would RISE on the third day.  But they forgot.  In their overwhelming sense of defeat and loss, they forgot.  Would we?  Would we have forgotten?  Would we have locked ourselves behind the thickest door we could find so the authorities couldn't get to us, too?  Would we have camped outside the tomb waiting for Sunday?  What would you have done?  What would I have done? It's so hard to know, since we've lived all our lives with the most important piece of information in the Easter story---He IS risen!  We know the powers of death and hell could not keep Jesus in the grave.  We know the women would find an EMPTY tomb on Sunday.  We know Thomas, the doubter, would become Thomas the worshiper.

 But we've all had moments in our lives when we weren't sure, haven't we?  We've waited for test results.  We've struggled through times of grief and loss.  We've all experienced hard times--physically, spiritually, financially.  What we do in those times is unlike what the disciples did, because we KNOW that the cross was not the "final answer."  We know Saturday was truly a day of waiting, not a day of despair.  We know that tomorrow Jesus would rise and nothing would ever be the same again.  So, if you are in a time of waiting today, know that the waiting WILL end. Know that Jesus IS Lord.  Know that no authority on earth or in hell can ultimately defeat us, because we serve the one who has ALL authority in heaven and earth.  Waiting is never fun or easy, but when it's waiting for Jesus the final answer is always victory!