Remember The Sabbath Day, To Keep It Holy

As I sat at the kitchen table eating my breakfast of bacon and eggs this morning, I thought about the fact that today is the Sabbath. More specifically, today is the Sabbath between Jesus' death and his resurrection. But why? Why did his death and resurrection have to book end the Sabbath? It certainly sets things up nicely for the women to come to the tomb after the prophesied period of time (three days). The Sabbath was the reason Jesus' body had to be brought down from the cross immediately. Normally it would take a little longer for people to die on the cross, and they would be left there for a while for passersby to see and to mock.
Okay, so the Sabbath had its role in the fulfillment of prophesy. But then I started thinking about what that Sabbath meant for Jesus' followers.
Imagine your son, your friend, your teacher, your leader, the man you thought was going to rule your people, the one you lived with for the last three years, this person you trusted and cared about; imagine he has just died, and the next day is a day of rest--a day of remembrance. On this day you are not allowed to do anything. You may not busy yourself with business, or housekeeping. You may not even tend to the proper burial customs until the next day. All you may do is wait, and think, and pray.
You are forced to face the loss. No distractions. No diversions.
You are forced to face your response to the events of the day before. Did you abandon your friend? Did you deny your Lord? Did you put to death an innocent man? You have nothing to do on this day but to reflect on the events of the day before.
I do not envy those disciples. We sit here and reflect on the events of Good Friday, and we may be humbled by the sacrifice, by the weight of our sin, by the love of our God. But we also reflect on Good Friday in the light of the resurrection on Sunday. We see the hope. We see the fulfillment of Christ's work. We have his Spirit to help us understand how the Scriptures foretold all that was to take place. The disciples could only understand what they had seen. Their Lord, their teacher, and their friend was dead. All that they had hoped for seemed to die along with Jesus' last breath. 
This is the Sabbath. This is a day to remember.