"It was now about the sixth hour,
and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour,
for the sun stopped shining.
And the curtain of the temple was torn in two.
Jesus called out with a loud voice,
'Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.'
When he said this, he breathed his last.
"The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said,
'Surely this was a righteous man.'
When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight
saw what took place,
they beat their breasts and went away.
But all those who knew him,
including the women who had followed him from Galilee,
stood at a distance, watching these things.
"Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the Council,
a good and upright man,
who had not consented to their decision and action.
He came from the Judean town of Arimathea
and he was waiting for the kingdom of God.
Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus' body.
Then he took it down,
wrapped it in linen cloth
and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock,
one in which no one had yet been laid.
It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin.
"The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee
followed Joseph and saw the tomb
and how his body was laid in it.
Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes.
But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.
"On the first day of the week, very early in the morning,
the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb.
They found the stone rolled away from the tomb,
but when they entered,
they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.
While they were wondering about this,
suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them.
In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground,
but the men said to them,
'Why do you look for the living among the dead?
He is not here; He has risen!'"
Luke 23:44-56, 24:1-6a
photo credit: www.request.org.uk
Amen!