This morning I was reminded of a few reflections I have written over the last several years on Holy Saturday. I was going back through my journal and thought these two were helpful, and while similar, eahc focused on a bit different theme. Hopefully you find them helpful!
From 2015:
Today is Holy Saturday, a day of anticipation for the celebration of Jesus' resurrection. However this morning I am meditating on the first celebration of this day, the day when it really happened. Jesus died on Friday around 3pm (the ninth hour) and was buried later that day. Here are the verses describing his burial from Matthew 27:57-61 NIV:
[57] "As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus. [58] Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus' body, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him. [59] Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, [60] and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away. [61] Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb."
Those are the last verses of chapter 27, and verse one of chapter 28 starts with the first hours following the sabbath. We find the same thing in all four Gospels, no real mention of the day after Jesus death (Saturday or the Sabbath). I have spent quite some time thinking about those days and years in Jesus' life where there is no Gospel commentary, and I think it is important for us to at least go there in our thoughts, for these days (and Holy Saturday especially) represent those days when God is silent.
I find the silence of God quite unsettling, and I am sure the Apostles and disciples were greatly troubled that Sabbath. All their ideas, thoughts, hopes and dreams about what the Lord was going to do appeared to have died when Jesus died on the cross. They knew He was the Son of God, or at least the Apostles did, and yet He died. They truly had not grasped what Jesus had been trying to tell them, that He had to suffer and die. We are told over and over again in the Gospels that the disciples did not understand what Jesus meant when He was talking about his coming death. I believe that is a indication of what they were dealing with that Saturday, as remembered by them when they wrote the Gospels. I believe they were experiencing complete and utter despair, complete confusion, grief, fear, failure, and even betrayal. If they gathered for the sabbath, which it appears they did for they were all together the following day, than it was likely a very quiet gathering, each caught up in their own thoughts and sorrow.
I wonder if they went through the motions of celebrating the sabbath? The Sabbath was a day of sacred assembly, considered holy to the Lord. They were not to do any work, cook or even light a fire in their homes. They were to be reminded that the Lord created the world in six days and on the seventh day rested. They were to turn their eyes and hearts to God. Instead, I can just imagine them gathered together and feeling like everything they believed was now in question. Jesus had come proclaiming the arrival of the Kingdom of God, demonstrated the reality of that Kingdom by healing the sick and diseased, raising dead people, cleansing lepers, healing the blind and deaf and casting out demons. They had been convinced by all these signs that He was the Son of God, the Messiah, and their paradigm and thoughts of the time of the Messiah didn't have any room for Him dying and leaving them alone. Yet He was dead.
It is amazing how much changed in just a few short days. They had witnessed Jesus' triumphant arrival in Jerusalem, riding on a donkey, people shouting, "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!" (Luke 19:38). Less than a week later, Jesus was dead, and they "were together, with doors locked for fear of the Jews." (John 20:19). They were afraid that the same thing might happen to them as happened to Jesus. One of their own had betrayed Jesus, Peter had denied Jesus, they had almost all abandoned Jesus when He was crucified. It was not a happy or joyful group of people. All of their hopes appeared dead, laying in the tomb. All of the personal sacrifices they had made to follow Him were probably now running through their minds. They were likely thinking that they hadn't signed up for this, and wondering how they could go back!
I think at times we can just gloss over these events and days, because we know Easter is coming, we know that Jesus rose from the dead the very next morning. It is great to read stories when you know the ending, not nearly as much fun to live through the midst of the story without the benefit of knowing how it will turn out. I think if we are honest with ourselves, none of us ever wants to go through these types of times, and we don't like to be around people who are going through them, for they are painful to behold and experience. We don't like pain, and yet we all deal with it. It is so much easier to just ignore the pain in other peoples lives, than to wade in and be there with them in their pain. Personally, we tend to try to escape our pain, either trying to deaden it, run away from it, or stuff it so far down in our hearts that is doesn't show up for months or sometimes years.
The point, in going here in our minds, is that Easter (and by Easter I mean the victory of the Lord over sin and death, and the opening of the way to the Father) really does occur, in our own lives as well as it did that first Easter. No matter where we find ourselves, or what sorrow we are dealing with, Easter will occur. Jesus is alive and will show Himself strong. He has vanquished the enemy and will destroy his works in our lives. It is when God is quiet that all Heaven is about ready to break loose. God will not abandon us, forsake us, betray our trust or leave us. He will come. He will rescue us. He will pour out His Holy Spirit. He will break the chains that bind us. He will walk right into the rooms where we are hiding with the doors locked. He will breath on us. He has a better plan than we can ever imagine. We have likely greatly underestimated His ability to do good in our lives.
So let us be encouraged when God is silent, because He is coming, and He has something great planned. Let us not give into despair, but rather put our hope in the one who has paid the ultimate price for our lives. Let us be with our friends and family who are in pain and sorrow, whose hopes and dreams and lives appear destroyed and dead. Let us console them with this truth - Easter is coming. Let us wait for Easter morning together.
Amen!
From 2019:
This morning , I thought it would be interesting to meditate on the Sabbath day following Jesus’ death on the cross. This is a day that we know nothing about, as it begins shortly after Jesus’ burial, with the Jewish Sabbath starting at Sunset, and proceeding to the following sunset.
In Matthew’s Gospel, we actually have some verses pertaining to this day, but nothing that talks about the followers of Jesus. Matthew 27:62-66 describes the fact that the Chief Priests and Pharisees went to Pilate and asked him to have a guard stationed at the tomb, to make sure that Jesus’ followers didn’t steal His body to try and fake the resurrection. In Mark’s Gospel this day is found between the last verse of chapter 15 and the first verse of chapter 16, “When the Sabbath was over”. In Luke, we are told specifically that His followers, especially the “women who had come with Jesus from Galilee” (Luke 23:55-56) had rested on the Sabbath day, in accordance with the commandment. Luke then moves right to the beginning of the first day of the week, following the Sabbath, and again, other than the fact that they rested, we know nothing. Finally John’s Gospel, as well, is silent about this day.
So, why my meditation? I personally think that the silence of God in certain situations reveals much to us about our own mind-set and beliefs. It is in the silence of God that our faith and trust is tested. In my life, there have been times of transition, times of change, times of difficulty and what I want more than anything in those times is a sense of purpose, direction and a ‘word from the Lord’. The thing that I have found, is more often than not, God is quiet in these times. I don’t believe it is some cruel streak in God, where He holds back the very thing I think I need more than anything. Instead I have learned that His love and faithfulness are every bit as active in those quiet moments as any other times.
In retrospect, He has always been at work in the background, and that I was too unaware to realize it. God is a perfect, and so is His timing. What I want is advanced notice, what God wants is for me to trust in His faithfulness. My tendency is to slide immediately into unbelief, He wants me to learn to have faith, and stand (Eph 6:13-16). Thus, I have opportunity to grow.
When I think about the disciples and Apostles of Jesus, resting on the Sabbath following His death and burial, I imagine it was the darkest of days for them. Just earlier in the previous week, Jesus had arrived in Jerusalem, being heralded as the coming King, riding along on the back of a donkey, and now he was dead and buried, and all of their ideas of their future at His side were shattered. It is clear from the Gospel’s that despite Jesus repeatedly warning them of His impending death that they just didn’t get it. They continued to believe that as the Messiah He was going to be seated on David’s former throne and restore Israel as God’s people, complete with their national pride, freedom and identity restored.
It is my belief that Instead of glory, they were experiencing the depths of despair. They were likely gathered together, as would have been their custom on the Sabbath, and they were probably all just shell-shocked from the last 2 days. I am sure there were tears, and sorrow, real grieving for the loss of the most important person in their lives. They had committed somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 years of their life to Jesus, following Him everywhere, living together and always His was the direction they followed, and now there was only silence, dead silence.
I think that they might have been racking their brains, trying to remember what Jesus had told them concerning His death and rising from the dead. I think they probably bounced back in forth from wild hope in remembered words, to stunning silence and despair as they remembered his beaten and bloody body. I think they were probably all dealing with His death individually as we all do when a loved one passes. I am sure everything they said or did reminded them of Him, and that would just revisit the pain of their loss.
I think this was one of the darkest days of all time, for the Light of the World had come, and was lost. The long awaited Messiah had been revealed, and now He was dead. Their hope for restoration and revival, God’s blessing and visitation was lying dead in a tomb. We like to say “its Friday, but Sunday is coming” as a reminder that the joy of His resurrection is following close on the heels of the loss of His death, but the Apostles and disciples didn’t know this, didn’t understand it, and didn’t believe it. The Gospels recount several times where Jesus told them exactly what was going to happen, and in every one of those times, the writers make a very specific note that His followers didn’t understand what He meant. I believe this is indicative of the fact that they were all remembering that dark day, that day of shattered dreams and ideas.
So for us, what can we gain from meditating on this dark day? I think for me the important thing is to look to God, to His word, to His character, to His promises regardless of the circumstances. I believe that His desire for me is to learn to entrust myself to Him, taking His guidance and direction, and trusting that He has a bigger perspective that I am not seeing.
I am learning to trust in Him, regardless of how difficult and confusing the circumstances are at present. I am learning that He knows my circumstances, my weaknesses, my struggles, and He has made a way in spite of them all. I am learning that He tries to prepare me, although most of the time I don’t understand Him, or mis-interpret what He means. He loves me, desires the best for me, and knows the exact time, the exact place and the exact reason for each and every encounter and experience.
Like His followers, I can choose to move forward, even as the Ladies did the next morning. They weren’t expecting His miraculous resurrection, but they were taking the next logical steps which put them right in the Lord’s path, and into the glory of His resurrection. Sometimes, all we need to do is to just get through the day, look to Him, and trust that tomorrow will be a better day, and one that we will encounter Him!
I know it is somewhat of a cliché, but there is truth in the saying, ‘Friday might be here, but Sunday is coming’! God’s provision and purpose are true, and He is faithful! Let us trust in Him, press through this dark day, and believe that we will encounter Him anew, and fresh!
Amen and Amen! Come Lord Jesus!
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