Final Week of Jesus - When Tomb Becomes a Womb

Lazarus spent four days in the tomb.

During those four days, his sisters, Martha and Mary, each experienced deaths of their own.

Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of a large fish.  During those three days and three nights, the unwilling prophet actually begun to pray.

Three days, four days is a long, very long time. 

Especially when you are the one marinating in the digestive juices of a sea monster. 

Especially when the one you love is in the tomb.

It’s the time of waiting.  The excruciating in-between time of darkness and silence.

Jesus’ dead body was taken off the cross, wrapped in linen cloth and laid in a brand-new tomb (Luke 23:50-55). The grieving friends did what they could,

And on the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment. Luke 23:56

They rested.

 

According to the commandment.

The discipline of rest. 

The grueling exercise of trust and hope when all hope is lost.  It's the place where I am at the end of myself, and there is nowhere else to look but God.

To God who creates the world out of nothing.  To God who raises the dead. To God who breathes life into a field of dead dry bones.

If He doesn't do it, it's not going to happen. If He doesn't fight this battle,  it's a snowball's chance in hell to win a victory. 

I want to skip this part.  I want to jump from crucifixion to resurrection in one acrobatic swoop. 

Ha! See what MY God can do!

But, during this time… three days, four days... three eternally long days... during this forever stretched-out dark night of the soul,  the tomb is somehow being transformed... the tomb is transfigured and becomes a womb...