The Phil Files

If yesterday was “Good Friday,” then today would have to be aptly named, Sad Saturday. This day, caught between heaven and hell, good and evil, Sunday and Friday, is the day of sacrificial rest and remembrance, the day of bitter herbs and distant memories of God’s great acts now seemingly turned impotent and God’s powerful and creative voice fallen silent. I can’t imagine how the closest friends of Jesus felt so many years ago, because crushed seems to mild and devastated too shallow.

So today, as I read about Elijah from Eugene Petersen’s incredibly convicting book, The Jesus Way, I was reminded how much I want to dictate the ways and timing of God. So frequently, it seems to me, we don’t — I don’t — have the patience or the faithfulness to let God work His costly grace in my life. But, just as surely as Saturday rests between Friday and Sunday, so also God is at work in the silent moments when His voice is not heard and darkness appears to reign.

This powerful compilation of an old message and the scenes from The Passion of the Christ remind us of this once again: