It’s the week after Easter Sunday. So much changed in the brief time between Jesus’ Crucifixion and His resurrection. On this side of the cross, we are now the Easter people—we live with the knowledge that Jesus’ resurrection has overcome sin and death and we can choose hope and joy, even in this broken world.
But to Jesus’ followers, including His mother, the week after the Crucifixion must have felt like a lifetime. They were disoriented, grieving, afraid, and uncertain what to believe next. They lived in the in-between—the long, confusing stretch where hope seemed buried and heaven was silent. What was going through their minds during those days?
For Peter, the weight must have been unbearable. This was the man Jesus had called “the rock” (Matthew 16:18), the one who boldly declared, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). Yet only hours before the crucifixion, Peter denied even knowing Jesus—three times. “And he went outside and wept bitterly” (Luke 22:62).
In that quiet week, Peter may have wondered: How can I be the foundation of anything when I’ve failed so completely? The rooster’s crow likely haunted and shamed him.
John, “the disciple whom Jesus loved,” had seen everything at the foot of the cross (John 19:26). The agony, the final breath, the piercing of Jesus’ side. Jesus entrusted Mary, His mother, into John’s care: his grief would have been tangled with responsibility. What do I do now? How do I care for her when I am barely holding on myself?
And Mary—the mother of Jesus. No heart could have carried more pain. Simeon had once prophesied, “A sword will pierce your own soul too” (Luke 2:35). That sword had surely found its mark—Mary had watched her son suffer and die.
But perhaps Mary understood more than most. She had heard the angel’s words from the beginning. She had pondered these things in her heart (Luke 2:19). But even though she believed God’s promise, she was still a mother who had held her dying child. Faith and heartbreak sat side by side.
Mary Magdalene’s grief was deeply personal. Jesus had delivered her from darkness and had given her a new life, a new identity. But it may have felt like everything was slipping away. She stayed near the tomb, even after others left (John 20:11). Her love would not let her walk away, even when hope seemed gone.
Then there is Lazarus. Once dead, now alive because of Jesus (John 11). What must he have thought as he watched the One who called him out of the grave now lie in one? Did he wonder why Jesus did not call Himself out, or did he quietly trust, knowing better than anyone that death is not the end when Jesus is involved?
The other disciples likely wrestled with fear. John tells us, “the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders” (John 20:19). The bold men who once left everything to follow Jesus now huddled behind closed doors, uncertain and afraid.
And yet, beneath all the confusion, grief, guilt, and fear, there were seeds of something they could not yet see.
Jesus had told them, “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me” (John 16:16). But in the waiting, those words were likely almost impossible to comprehend.
Like the disciples, we also know the promises of God. We’ve heard the truth. But there are seasons—the in-between times in our lives—when heaven seems distant. We sit with unanswered questions, replaying our failures, holding our grief, and wrestling with doubts.
The disciples thought they were living in the end, but they were actually standing on the edge of a beginning. The same is true for us—what feels like silence is often God preparing something we cannot yet imagine. Stay faithful in the waiting, because even now, God is turning your darkest moment toward resurrection.
“Weeping may stay for the night,
but rejoicing comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:5).
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