I am a big fan of Gilmore Girls.  In the show, on the anniversary of Luke’s father’s death he has what the town calls his “Dark Day”.  He goes away to be alone, to sit in silence and remember his father.

Today, we are observing the “Darkest Day” the world has ever known.  I was raised in the church, we regularly went to Good Friday services.  When you do something so many times it can begin to lose its significance.  I did not realize that this had happened to me until I was struck with the reverent heaviness of this day one Good Friday.

About five years ago, my husband and I went to a church that was not our regular church home.  He knew the pastor and wanted to experience their Tenebrae service.

If you have never been to a Tenebrae service, I would recommend you find one in your area.  Tenebrae is the latin word for “darkness”.  The service is characterized by the  gradual extinguishing of candles and by “strepitus” or “loud noise.”  When we walked in we noticed that the windows had been covered and the room was lit by mostly candles and one light shining over the cross at the front of the sanctuary.  The service walks you through the last days/hours of Jesus’ time here on earth.  As each scripture is read, a candle is extinguished.  The room grew darker and darker as the story marched toward the moment to which all of history had been building.

Loud banging that came from somewhere in the back signifying the nails being pounded through the hands of Jesus brought tears to my eyes.  The pounding seemed to reverberate in my soul.  The room had grown much darker by this point in the service.  Grief was heavy in the air.  We knew how this story ends.

Finally, “It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, for the sun stopped shining.  And the curtain of the temple was torn in two.  Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last.”  – Luke 23:44-46

At that moment the last light, the light that shone above the cross, went dark.  We were left sitting in utter darkness…….complete silence.  The air felt cold and heavy.  As I sat there, I wept.  THIS, this is what a world without HOPE feels like.  The literal “Light of the World” had been extinguished.  There are actually no words that could describe the emptiness my soul felt in that moment.  Never before had I felt the weight of Good Friday in this way.

We all walked out of the church somber and quiet.  What do you even say after something like that?  We were supposed to go home and make dinner for our family but seriously?  The Lord was just crucified!

I cannot imagine what it must have been like those hours/days after Jesus was crucified.  The grief his disciples, his friends, his MOTHER must have felt.  I am glad I was not there.  Thankfully, we know what they didn’t…….Sunday was coming…….

Like Luke in Gilmore Girls, we all have our “dark days”.  The last couple of years have held extremely dark days for us.  You have probably had your own dark days.  The loss of a loved one…..a diagnosis you prayed you would never hear said about you……watching your parents age and their health deteriorate……your marriage might be on its last leg…..maybe you don’t know how you are going to pay all of your bills this month.  Friends, the world is full of hard things, things that take your breath away, things that leave you crying into your pillow when you think you are alone.  BUT……Sunday is coming….

“On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb.  They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when the entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.  While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightening stood beside them.  In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?  he is not here; he is risen!” Luke 24:1-6

Jesus did not leave us in darkness!  We do indeed know how this story ends, Jesus rose from the dead, defeating darkness once and for all.

Even in the most trying of times over the last few years I have never, not even once, felt that emptiness I felt sitting on that hard church pew in the dark.  Jesus did not stay dead.  We have a living HOPE. Friends the world will never again feel the weight of that “darkest” day so many, many years ago.  Nothing you will experience can change how this story ends.  I promise you, if you are in a dark place……Sunday is coming.

I pray that if you, like I had, have maybe lost the significance of this day that you would let yourself feel the darkness.  Today, I am going to take Luke’s lead.  I am going to sit quietly in reverent awe and remember what my heavenly father did for me….for you…on the cross so many years ago.  Don’t let knowing the end of the story stop you from feeling the significance of His sacrifice.  Please….feel the darkness……. but know……Sunday is coming!