The After-Oakdale Chronicles

“Sitting In Stunned Silence”

Try to imagine what was taking place in the lives of those who loved Jesus and had witnessed his brutal execution one day earlier.

Much has been written about that day as well as the third day, when Christ rose from the dead, but what was life like for those who were the closest to Christ before His death on the day in-between His brutal murder and His glorious resurrection?

Most of us have dealt with the death of someone we love; deaths which come about simply as a result of old age, as well as those that are sudden and unexpected. Those of us who have experienced the sudden and untimely loss of someone can probably recall how we were stunned into silence borne of disbelief.

I remember when my best friend, Tommy Meister, was killed driving home after an evening of partying at my house. Awakened by a phone call at around 3 AM by another friend who informed me of the news, I was stunned into silence for several minutes before I broke into uncontrollable sobbing. For days and days – perhaps even weeks – following his death, there would be periods of sobbing, but there were many more times where all I could do was sit in that stunned silence of disbelief.

How could God allow this to happen? Tommy Meister was a very good person. He was only 17 and had his entire life before him. He was kind, compassionate. gentle and soft-spoken. He was capable of making those who were not generally accepted or well-liked by others (yours truly, for example) feel special.

Tommy was a young man people gravitated to, much like Jesus. In fact, Tommy, with the long hair and beard popular in the 70’s, even looked like the illustrations of Jesus Christ we have all seen.

So what about the thousands and thousands of people who had the unimaginable privilege of seeing Jesus and hearing him speak? What could have gone through their minds upon witnessing or hearing of his death?

And what about those who were closest to him? How did they deal with the aftermath of His execution in-between the time of His death and His resurrection? Certainly there were the sounds of weeping and the wails of grief, but there also must have been blank stares of disbelief and stunned silence at what had transpired the day before.

Did they blame God?

I watched Mel Gibson’s “The Passion Of The Christ” again yesterday, as I wrote I was going to. I must be honest and tell you, I was rather taken aback by how intense my reaction was as I used the vividness of Gibson’s film to help my mind connect with what actually happened that day. I was alone in my room and sobbed uncontrollably at several points as I thought about the pain and suffering He endured on our behalf.

And I paused the DVD several times and sat in stunned silence, contemplating the truth of His crucifixion.

The women who portrayed His Mother and Mary Magdalene appeared stunned and disbelieving throughout the film. How horrible it must have been for the real women who loved Him to witness His brutal murder.

How empty the day after must have been for them as they tried to accept the fact He was gone.

Think about the other things that occurred the day before which must have contributed to their collective disbelief: Judas’ betrayal and consumption by guilt leading to his suicide; Peter’s denying His Lord three times out of fear for his own personal safety; the abandonment by the rest of His apostles and others who had followed Him; the realization that He had foretold of the events they had just witnessed and what must have been the certain knowledge of their personal failures of faith.

Each person, stunned into silence by the murder of the Son of God.

Before we move forward into the glory of the Third Day and that perfect ending to a shockingly painful story, perhaps we could all use the day in-between to spend a few moments in our own stunned silence and give thanks to the One who took on an unbelievably heavy burden so that the opportunity to be free of our burdens is there for the asking.

Thank you, Lord, for the gift of this “Day In-Between”.

Amen.

(Originally posted in 2015)

“Defeating Death”

^“They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.” So he delivered him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. (John 19:15-17 ESV)

Jesus had been silent throughout most of the proceedings and as they led Him away, He continued His silent acceptance of what was about to happen. Even though He knew He would shortly suffer a horrible death, He also knew that His blood had to be shed to wash away the sins of the world.

In the spring of 2005, my sister Kathy, and her husband, Larry, arranged a vacation at a beach house in Myrtle Beach, SC. At the time, I was living in Hollywood, FL taking care of our mother and our step-father, who had suffered a stroke several months before. I drove them to Myrtle Beach, where we were all joined by several other family members for a relaxing week at the beach.

Everyone else went off on an excursion one day, and I remained behind, claiming I just wanted to relax. The truth is, I wanted to snort some cocaine, smoke some pot, and drink a few beers. You know….’relax’.

I did all of those things, but I also did something else. I watched Mel Gibson’s “The Passion Of The Christ”, which someone had left lying next to the TV. I was still very, very far from considering myself a Christian at that point, but I was curious as I had heard so much of the controversy surrounding the film. Admittedly, I was mesmerized by it even though I was still fully engaged in my private, undeclared ‘war’ with God.

Gibson’s interpretation simply has to be as correct as the human imagination can possibly make it. When I watched it back then, I watched it without devoting any thought to the real events of that day. I will be watching it again today, but from a different perspective: I will be watching it as one who has experienced the saving power of the blood shed by the One who really died that day.

This time there will be tears of gratitude in my eyes for the pain He endured on my behalf. I will also be watching it with sadness at the pain He experienced, but at the same time, I will be watching with joy for the reason He experienced it. I was the reason. You were the reason.

All of us. He died for all of us.

But do “all of us” know what that means?

For me, the shedding of His blood washed away the blood that covered my body in August of 2009 as I lay dying on a shower floor. The blood He shed as His life left His body enabled me to ask God for forgiveness and receive new life for myself.

Jesus defeated death for all of us by dying on the cross. Whereas my death that morning in south Florida would have affected only those who knew me, the death of Jesus Christ that day affected, indeed changed, the entire world.

I pray we all think about that today.

And thank Him.

(Originally posted in 2015)

“5 Minutes and 16 Seconds”

If you are a Christian,

The video below contains the most difficult 5 minutes and 16 seconds of film you will ever watch. The accompanying song, “Carry My Cross” is performed by Third Day and somehow helps to transform the tears generated by the graphic imagery of Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” from tears of pain and grief at the way our Lord and Savior was savagely beaten to tears of joy and triumph at the end when His words in John 10:17-18 are displayed and we are reminded that He died willingly, obediently, and for each and every one of us because He loves us.