【双语灵修】静候神的预备WAITING WHILE GOD PREPARES

路加福音 23:50-56

有一个人名叫约瑟，是个议士，为人善良公义， 众人所谋所为他并没有附从；他本是犹太亚利马太城里素常盼望神国的人。 这人去见彼拉多，求耶稣的身体。 就取下来，用细麻布裹好，安放在石头凿成的坟墓里，那里头从来没有葬过人。 那日是预备日，安息日也快到了。 那些从加利利和耶稣同来的妇女跟在后面，看见了坟墓和他的身体怎样安放。 她们就回去，预备了香料香膏。她们在安息日便遵着诫命安息了。

4月4日

静候神的预备

“有一个人名叫约瑟……他本是……素常盼望神国的人。” - 路加福音 23:50-51

《圣经》中似乎充满了等待。比如亚伯拉罕和撒拉等候那个应许之子（《创世记》12-18）。

以色列人等候多年才从奴役中得释放（《出埃及记》1-12）。西面、亚拿和其他百姓等候弥赛亚的降临（《路加福音》2:25-38）。希伯来语中有许多关于“等待”的词汇和短语，就像加拿大北部的一些原住民语言有许多描述“雪”的方式一样。在那里，雪是生活的重要组成部分。事实证明，等待也是神子民生活的重要组成部分。

正如我们在经文中读到的，亚利马太的约瑟正在等候神的国。但在这里，令人惊讶的是，他正把耶稣的尸体从十字架上取下来。约瑟原以为耶稣要带来神的国，但现在他死了。如果约瑟想让自己重拾等待的功课，那很可能是一种挫败的、绝望的等待。

想想在那里的妇女们也是如此。她们可能认为耶稣的工作和教导已经化为乌有，只剩下一具需要埋葬的尸体。

但是，当约瑟把耶稣的身体安放在坟墓里，妇女们预备香料膏抹耶稣身体的时候，神正在预备一件新事，要将绝望的等待转化为喜乐与平安。

祷告

父啊，我们知道你结束了这等待。但在我们到达那一刻并开始欢庆之前，让我们先品味这等待，并认出其中熟悉的东西，就是我们自己渴望和等待的经历。感谢你，在基督里，让我们的等待并非没有指望。阿们。

Luke 23:50-56

SATURDAY, APRIL 4

WAITING WHILE GOD PREPARES

There was a man named Joseph . . . and he himself was waiting for the kingdom of God. —Luke 23:50-51

There seems to be a lot of waiting in Scripture. Abraham and Sarah waited for a promised child (Genesis 12-18).

The Israelites waited for many years to be freed from slavery (Exodus 1-12). Simeon, Anna, and others waited for the Messiah to come (Luke 2:25-38). The Hebrews had many words and phrases for “wait,” just as some Indigenous languages spoken in northern Canada have many ways to describe snow. Snow is a large part of life there. Waiting, it turns out, is a large part of life for God’s people.

As we read in our text, Joseph of Arimathea was waiting for the kingdom of God. But here, surprisingly, he was taking the dead body of Jesus down from a cross. Joseph had thought Jesus was bringing in God’s kingdom, but now he was dead. If Joseph could bring himself to pick up the work of waiting again, it would likely have been a defeated, hopeless sort of waiting.

Think of the women there as well. They probably assumed that Jesus’ work and teaching had come to nothing, that there was just a body to bury.

But as Joseph laid Jesus’ body in a tomb and the women prepared spices for Jesus’ burial, God was preparing something new that would change hopeless waiting into joy and peace.

We know that you ended the waiting, Father. But before we go there and rejoice, let us taste the waiting and recognize something familiar in it—our own experiences of longing and waiting. Thank you that, in Christ, we do not wait without hope. Amen.