somber

The word somber carries several meanings, which include the feelings of being downcast and glum, plus it would indicate something extremely serious or grave. The word grave takes the meaning even further by threatening a seriously bad outcome or something involving serious or even critical issues. This is illustrated in the following sentence – They were having grave thoughts of an uncertain future.

The death of Jesus was a very somber time for the disciples for all the reasons of the definitions given above. Even though Jesus had tried to tell them that He was going to die and even how He was going to die, somehow their minds just couldn’t grasp it. Let me mention here that I would not have understood either and would have been shaking in my sandals had I been there.

In my mind, I can see the disciples secretly grouped together behind closed doors. It had to be a time of confusion and fear because if the religious leaders had killed Jesus it would follow that His disciples were next. In their somberness they must have been trying to understand how this could possibly have happened. This was Jesus, the one that had healed the sick, cured the horrible leprosy, opened blind eyes, brought hearing back to the deaf and even brought the dead back to life! And now He was dead!

Every outside noise must have caused them to fear even more, thinking that it may be the soldiers coming for them. Everything that they had hoped for and believed in was gone. What could they do now? Would it even be safe to leave town for fear they would be recognized going out the gates of the city? This was the worst Friday night that any of them had ever known.

Even though this was a horrible time, and though they had no way of knowing – Sunday was on the way!!! ec