When Words Fail
By Anthony Casperson
3-30-24

Some who read the title might be wondering if I somehow forgot that this is the weekend that we celebrate Resurrection Sunday. Others—who’ve been around the website for a while now—already know that I take the Saturday between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday to talk about this time period between the payment for our sins and our own resurrection.

The Day Between, when Jesus’ original followers experienced the sorrow of the cross, but had yet to realize the glory of the resurrection. And the Day Between, when we followers of Jesus experience the sorrows of this life, but have yet to realize the glory of the resurrection.

I’m reminded, once again, of the practice of some followers of Jesus throughout church history where the people would gather on the night of Good Friday to contemplate the cross. The gathering would end in a silence that was kept until Resurrection Sunday morning, when the first words out of their mouths were, “He is risen.”

This temporary period of silence was a reminder of the sorrow of the first followers of Jesus. The utter grief felt when they didn’t understand that Jesus would rise on Sunday morning. It was also a reminder of the joy of the resurrection as excitement couldn’t help but escape their lips with news of the empty tomb.

While many a gathering of followers of Jesus will celebrate that joy of the resurrection tomorrow, we have to admit that many of us still struggle with the sorrow of this “day” between our salvation and our resurrection. The distress of the Day Between.

We truly accept that Jesus died for us, freeing us from our enslavement to sin. And we completely await the return of Jesus so that we can fully experience the resurrection as well. But every day we live in the trials and difficulties of this present age. Depression. Anxiety. Heartbreak. Terror. Disease. Loss. Pain. Toil. And so much more.

Feelings very similar to the sorrow of those original followers of Jesus on the very first Day Between.

Far too often, we act like it’s wrong to feel the grief of this life when we near the celebration of holidays. As if sorrow and joy are so antithetical that they can’t possibly exist at the same time. As if the tears of either are made of a different substance than the other’s.

But this circumstance of shouting for joy even while weeping in pain is a beautiful reminder of human existence in this time between. The time when we await something spectacular, but know the troubles of right now.

The time when words fail us.

Because the grief is so bitter that anything spoken would be incomprehensible anyway. Inarticulate babbling that matches our internal uncertainty. Groanings which speak volumes.

Paul writes of groanings in the midst of suffering as we await the return of our Lord, and the resurrected glory that he will bring with him, in Romans 8:18-27. The failing of words which fall to groans as we cry out to God.

This section starts with wondrous news. The sufferings of this present time—this Day Between—are nothing when compared to the glory revealed to us in Jesus’ return. That’s not to say that our sufferings are small, but that Jesus’ return is so glorious that even the worst experience of humanity will quickly be forgotten. So amazing is the glory of the final Resurrection Sunday.

Paul adds emphasis to our current sorrow in verse 19, as he says that we aren’t alone in our eager expectation of Jesus’ return. Creation itself groans with us. Words fail creation itself as unintelligible rumblings sound forth from it, crying for the glory of resurrected life.

Creation joins us in the true hope, firmly standing in the promised freedom of the glory of the children of God. It groans like a mother in childbirth—pain at present, but promised joy.

And we ourselves groan, with wordless rumblings, awaiting the hope we find in Christ. The hope of the fulfillment of our salvation. Words fail during our sorrow of the Day Between, while we wait for Resurrection Sunday. The day that will arrive for sure, even though we have yet to see the sun rise.

As our words fail, and creation adds it’s own rumbling groans, God himself joins us in the groaning. Verse 26 tells us that the Spirit—the Third Person of the Trinity—helps us in our weakness. When words fail to express the fullness of our sorrow and pain, God himself steps in. The Spirit intercedes for us—steps in to translate the incomprehensible babblings—by sounding forth groanings too deep for words.

When words fail because of our grief, the Spirit not only understands what we’d want to say, but also the depths that words never could explain. It’s in the distress of the Day Between that we are deeply understood by God. It’s for this very pain that our Savior died. The pain brought about because of the sin that he saves us from.

So, if you’re experiencing the depths of the Day Between right now, don’t feel like the celebration of Resurrection Sunday has to be far from you. Don’t worry that words fail you right now. Because God hears even in our silence. Words are not a boundary for his understanding of our pain. The very thing that he died to set us free from.

Let the groanings rumble in sorrowful silence until we can finally say, “He is risen.”