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Key Bible Verse: Never again will death have the last word. (Romans 6:9, The Message) Dig Deeper: 1 Peter 3:18-21

I said before that Saturday is the day when nothing happens. That's not quite right. Silence happens on Saturday. After trouble hits you, after the agony of Friday, you call out to God. "Hear me! Listen to me! Respond to me! Do something! Say something! Rescue!" Nothing.

An ancient homily spoke of this strange day: "What happened today on earth? There is a great silence—a great silence and stillness. A great silence because the king sleeps. God has died in the flesh, and hell trembles with fear. He has gone to search for our first parent as for a lost sheep." The Apostles' Creed says Jesus descended in to hell. Somehow no suffering you go through is suffering Jesus will not endure in order to save you.

The miracle of Sunday is that a dead man lives. The miracle of Saturday is that the eternal Son of God lies dead.

So Jesus Christ defeats our great enemy death not by proclaiming his invincibility over it but by submitting himself to it. If you can find this Jesus in a grave, if you can find him in death, if you can find him in hell, where can you not find him? Where will he not turn up?

—John Ortberg in Who Is This Man?

My Response: I will reflect on the importance of the day before Easter Sunday.

Thought to Apply: [Jesus drank] the cup of mortality to its last, most hellish drop …. Would there be a Christian gospel were it not true that God has been found among the dying and the dead?—Alan Lewis (writer)

Adapted from Who Is This Man? (Zondervan, 2012) by permission. All rights reserved by the copyright holder and/or the publisher. May not be reproduced.

Copyright © 2013 by Christianity Today/Men of Integrity magazine. Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

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Prayer for the Week

Jesus, let this week's readings sink deep into my heart and give me a fresh perspective and new appreciation for your death, burial, and resurrection on my behalf.

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