The Worst Day and The Best Day
Almost all of us can recall an experience that would qualify as the “worst day.” Not the day when your team lost a really big game, or the computer froze up halfway through a term paper or an important work-related project. Rather, a life-changing, traumatic, and most painful experience of your life. You didn’t know whether you were going to survive it, or if you even wanted to.
Those best days, however, are times that we recall with smiles and gratitude, remembering happy milestones, hearing very good news regarding yourself or someone dear to you, or being part of something you never dreamed would be possible. The emotional boost from such events provides the balance we all need, reminding us of the many ways in which we are blessed.
Then consider how those worst days and best days are often juxtaposed with one another. When a desperately sick child, whose heart has been failing since birth, receives a transplant, one family’s joy is counterbalanced by another family’s crushing loss. When couples are married, babies are born, or other momentous occasions occur, there’s usually someone we think of with tears in our eyes, wishing that loved one was still present in the family circle, savoring the moment.
The days following Jesus’ death and burial were surely the worst days of the disciples’ lives. They had undergone life-changing experiences as they followed Jesus, coming to the understanding that he was, indeed, God’s promised Messiah, the one who would free his people from their sins. They had learned to serve God by being servants to all, following Christ’s example of compassion and kindness. That the one in whom they had put all their faith lay cold and dead in a rocky tomb was almost beyond their comprehension. We can imagine the tears, the grief, the bewilderment and questions of “How could this happen? What will we do now?”
After the Sabbath, when a small group of women went to the tomb to anoint the body with spices, Matthew tells us that an angel rolled away the stone, and said to them, “He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said.” So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. (Matthew 28:6a, 8) The other gospels have varying accounts of some disciples being told of Jesus’ resurrection, their stunned reactions, and soon experiencing Jesus himself in their midst.
As we consider the close proximity of these worst and best days for Jesus’ early followers, we are reminded of God’s presence in our own lives. Whether there are bad and even the worst of days, or the good, wonderful, best days, God is with us. At the times when we find ourselves conflicted, we are in good company – the women who found the tomb empty and ran to tell of the resurrection did so “with fear and great joy.” Whether the worst or the best, we do not go through any days alone.
Your friend in our risen Christ,
Mary Rogers