As strange as it sounds to speak,
Christians say there is an eighth day of the week.
Of course we know our calendar has seven,
But Christians say eight to suggest there is a heaven.
The first day of the week refers to the beginning of something new
But when Christians say eighth we are looking ahead to all that God will do.
An eighth day of the week was more than anyone could ever contrive.
For on the eighth day of the week, a human became fully alive.
Pilate, just three days before, told the crowds to behold the man.
We couldn’t see through his bruising that this was the way new creation began.
His bruising concealed the plan to be revealed, for death was the path of his choosing.
For even though he died he would be fully alive, and death would no longer be abusing.
We all know the last words that he cried
It is finished, he said, as he bowed down his head, the creator of the world had died.
Then three days later, the guards should have known better,
An angel came down, like lightning he sounds, and the stone rolled away forever.
Up from the grave he arose.
He neatly put away our grave clothes.
Then those who cared most came to care for the decomposed,
But they were surprised to see the stone rolled away, for death itself had been exposed.
The angels said, why do you seek the living among the dead?
The ladies were chosen this truth to spread.
But of all the accounts of those whom he saw, one stands out the most.
Mary was there, the one whom he found in despair, and she couldn't find a reason to boast.
Then she looked and saw someone there, supposing him to be a gardener.
And after seeing angels in white, she was still in fright, that is, until Jesus found her!
He said, Woman, why all the tears?
But she had no idea that soon he would melt all fears.
Did you take the body of my Lord? she asked, with all the purest intentions.
Then he called her by name, and it shook her to her frame, it was the same as her first intervention.
Now before we get too far,
Remember the story that brought in our scar.
In the beginning, God planted a Garden, where there was never to be any weeping.
Here at the end, we see a garden again, but this time a woman is weeping.
The solution he gives is his word confirmed, for this time, death was defeated!
From garden to weeping, to weeping to garden, when will our plight be ended?
The living Lord who defeated death, with love in his eyes, our weeping his presence amended.
Death was not his end, and it won’t be ours either, for us it is simply to follow the leader.
And we follow him all the way through death, for Jesus our High Priest is our pleader.
When Jesus arose the new creation was started,
The authority of new creation in his flesh he charted.
On the eighth day of the week a human being came fully alive,
And only in Jesus through death can we hope to survive.
Jesus promised as he ascended to the Father,
To come again so that by the time we get to the end, the world would catch up and know death no longer.