We can imagine that it was hard for the disciples after Jesus' humiliating death on Good Friday. The mood of disappointment and grief that hung over the disciple band is well caught in Luke's portrayal of the two disciples (Luke 24.13-35) on the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus.I think we would have been no better than they were in their despondency and spiritual blindness.
This 3-day period was an important time but for them they could only think that his death spelled the END.
And of course it did but not in the way they thought.
Jesus' coming into the world did mean the END; it meant the END of sin and death, of the old age.
Acknowledgement to http://visualtheology.blogspot.com.au/2011_04_01_archive.html for the graphic I have used even though I have taken what was a visual regarding Lazarus' death and reminded us that from the disciples' point of view Jesus' death appeared to end in similar despair during the 3-day travail.
