Waiting for the Impossible

“It is finished.”

As Jesus hung there from his bleeding wrists, weak and defeated and ready to breathe his last, the disciples found no comfort in those final three words.  Jesus knew what the coming days would hold, what he had truly accomplished by allowing himself to be brutally executed, but the disciples had no idea.

It is finished?  More like we are finished.

These men had followed Jesus for years, they were inseparably connected to their Master and Rabbi, and now He was dead, executed for crimes of treason and blasphemy.  The darkness that came over the land, the earthquakes and the thunder, was  nothing compared to the black terror that must have gripped their hearts.  They had thrown in their lot with a man unlike any other, a man who claimed to be God’s own Son, and instead of leading them into a victorious new age he had left them alone to face the music, the disillusioned remains of a lost cause.  If Jesus’ enemies could do this to Him, imagine what they could do to His followers  now that they were without their Messiah.  The next few days must have been the bleakest the disciples had ever known.  What could they do now that the last three years of their lives had been rendered worthless?  They would have to start over somehow, or perhaps go back to life as it had been and forget any of this had ever happened.  After all, their hope had died with Jesus, and the only way they could possibly reclaim it now was if He somehow returned.  Better to move on than to wait for the impossible.

But on Sunday morning, the impossible would happen.  God would bring His Son back to life, and the greatest triumph of all history would begin.  His return would transform the disciples from fearful and disillusioned refugees to unstoppable, Spirit-empowered revolutionaries.  In the coming years they would turn their whole world upside down with the good news that Jesus is alive.  But on Friday they didn’t know any of that.  On Friday, they would’ve believed it to be impossible.

Sometimes, in the darkest moments of our lives, it’s easy to feel the same way.  God promised to be there, told you that He had everything under control, but then everything fell apart and you were left clutching desperately at the remains of your life and wondering what had become of your Savior.  Sometimes you wonder if He’ll ever return or if He’s going to leave you alone and defenseless.  Sometimes you feel like you’re waiting for the impossible.

Don’t be afraid.  Our God is the master of the impossible.  Our God brings the dead to life and makes the broken whole.  Our God, the same God who raised His Son from the dead and brought hope to his despairing disciples, will be there to rescue you.

Wait for Him.