The In-Between Time

March 30, 2024 — Laura House

I woke up this morning thinking about how those who loved Jesus must have felt on the day after His crucifixion. The prophets of the Old Testament clearly wrote of this moment, and the people knew the Scriptures well, but when Jesus was with them on earth, they didn’t recognize that His death and resurrection would be the fulfillment of God’s plan. Jesus had also told the disciples what was going to happen, but they did not yet comprehend what He meant. 

They watched Him crucified and watched him die. When His body was taken down, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus took His body, prepared it for burial, and placed Him in the tomb.

I can imagine the kind of night that those who loved Him probably had. Weeping, mourning, emptiness, sorrow, confusion, disbelief, numbness, fear. 

Morning came, and the silence of the day must have been deafening. What were they supposed to do with their lives now? The Master was gone. 

They didn’t realize that the resurrection was coming. They didn’t know this was just the “in-between time.”

The single most important event in the history of the world is this — that God, our Creator and the One who loves us most, sent Jesus to atone for our sins. I John 2:2 says, “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.” 

Because of our sin, we were separated from God. Jesus took all sin; past, present, and future, and paid the price so that the guilty charges against us would be canceled and our relationship with God could be restored. He paid the debt in our place — every single one of us. The familiar verse, John 3:16, explains, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Because of Jesus, we can spend eternity with God, where there will be no more “mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore,...” (Revelation 21:4)

Because of Jesus, we can be with our children and others we love who have gone on before us!

Unlike Jesus’ followers while He was here on earth, we can read the detailed account of His life, death, and resurrection in the Bible. We don't have to be confused and fearful, not knowing what will happen. We know the end of the story! The resurrection is everything.

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." — I Peter 1:3