Waiting for wisdom to be revealed

For as long as I can remember, I’ve struggled with being misunderstood, and for that reason, I have grown to love the implication of the day between the cross and the empty tomb.

It is a day of … silence, and is often referred to as Silent Saturday because there seems to be nothing happening between the death of Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus.

Of course, on this side of both of those events we know that there was an eternity of things happening on the middle day, but think for a moment from God’s perspective on that first day of silence.

God was willing to be misunderstood. He was willing to be questioned, doubted, and even blamed for the tragedy that had taken place the day before, not by people who didn’t love him, but by those who did.

We’d seen this willingness to be falsely accused in the life and ministry of Jesus, of course. He had been given a sham trial and a pointless death sentence (the redemptive plan of God notwithstanding), and had remained silent. He had come to a people who refused to join him on the mission, even after his strategy was the opposite of the one who had gone before him, and been rejected as well. This is how he explained it in the red letters of Matthew:

For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, “He has a demon.” The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, “Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.” But wisdom is proved right by her deeds. (‭‭Matthew‬ ‭11‬:‭18‬-‭19, emphasis mine)

Jesus said they’d misunderstood John, and that they were now misunderstanding him. His response? LET IT PLAY OUT because wisdom is revealed in the waiting.

Ever wonder why interrogations take so long and involve oft-repeated questions? It’s because detectives know that eventually the truth will come out because the inconsistencies will be revealed. In other words, the story will begin to unravel if the narrative is false, but when wisdom is running the show, the waiting only heightens the power of the reveal.

It doesn’t necessarily make it easier on us as we wait to be vindicated, or for the whole story to come out, but it does mean that we don’t have to beat ourselves up because others have misunderstood us. Maybe they haven’t misunderstood you or me at all? Perhaps, like on that first Silent Saturday, they’ve simply misunderstood their need for the truth and wisdom that God is bringing to them.

Perhaps, they just can’t see it yet. But if Silent Saturday proves nothing else, it proves that resurrection life and light is coming, and could, in fact, be just one day away.

Photo by Pramod Tiwari on Unsplash

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