Mar. 30: Holy Saturday

By Arden Ratcliff

Luke 23:44-56

44 It was now about noon, and darkness covered the whole earth until about three o’clock, 45 while the sun stopped shining. Then the curtain in the sanctuary tore down the middle. 46 Crying out in a loud voice, Jesus said, “Father, into your hands I entrust my life.” After he said this, he breathed for the last time.

47 When the centurion saw what happened, he praised God, saying, “It’s really true: this man was righteous.” 48 All the crowds who had come together to see this event returned to their homes beating their chests after seeing what had happened. 49 And everyone who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance observing these things.

50 Now there was a man named Joseph who was a member of the council. He was a good and righteous man. 51 He hadn’t agreed with the plan and actions of the council. He was from the Jewish city of Arimathea and eagerly anticipated God’s kingdom. 52 This man went to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. 53 Taking it down, he wrapped it in a linen cloth and laid it in a tomb carved out of the rock, in which no one had ever been buried. 54 It was the Preparation Day for the Sabbath, and the Sabbath was quickly approaching. 55 The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph. They saw the tomb and how Jesus’ body was laid in it, 56 then they went away and prepared fragrant spices and perfumed oils. They rested on the Sabbath, in keeping with the commandment.

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I always feel like Holy Saturday gets lost in the midst of Holy Week.  We participate joyfully in the celebration of Palm Sunday, somberly remember the last supper and Jesus washing the feet of his disciples on Maundy Thursday, painfully and mournfully relive the suffering and humiliation of Jesus’ crucifixion on Good Friday, and then---- what?  By the time we make it through Good Friday, not to mention the best 39 days of Lent, we’re usually ready to start anticipating the resurrection.  We’ve been prayerful and reflective, and we’re ready to celebrate the risen Christ on Easter morning.  Many of us might be spending Holy Saturday baking Easter treats, or picking out a new Easter dress, or maybe dyeing Easter eggs (not to mention the vast majority of churches that hold their annual Easter egg hunts on Holy Saturday).

In an attempt to avoid the temptation of looking ahead to Easter this year, I found myself thinking back to the disciples.  What were they doing on the day after Jesus died?   I’m a bit embarrassed to admit that I didn’t know off the top of my head.  The first couple gospels I looked at didn’t really illuminate the issue, but when I got to the gospel of Luke’s account of Jesus’ death and resurrection, I realized why Matthew and Mark didn’t have much to say.

“It was the Preparation Day for the Sabbath, and the Sabbath was quickly approaching…. They rested on the Sabbath in keeping with the commandment.”

Jesus died at 3:00 on Friday, just hours before sundown, when the Sabbath would begin.  His friends had to act quickly to take his body off the cross, wrap it in linen cloth, and lay it in a tomb.  The women worked quickly to prepare the spices and perfumes with which to anoint his body, but there wasn’t time to apply them before the sun set and the Sabbath began.

Imagine what that Saturday must have been like for Jesus’ friends and followers.  There is so much to do, but they are forbidden to work.  Subsequent rabbinical work has delineated 39 creative activities Jews are forbidden to do on the Sabbath, including cooking, shearing, spinning, erasing, writing, building, planting, and igniting a fire.

Anyone who has ever experienced the death of a loved one knows that in the wake of that loss, there is SO MUCH that has to be DONE. And yet, the disciples could not do any of it.  They were stuck for an entire day just waiting.  And resting.  And thinking about the death of their dear friend and teacher. 

All while the stone rested resolutely in front of the tomb.

Maybe this Holy Saturday, we should take a lesson from the disciples.  Instead of preparing ourselves for Easter, instead of readying our hearts and minds to worship the risen Christ, maybe we should sit and rest.  Maybe we should let the pre-Easter hustle pass us by, and instead give ourselves room to breathe and think.  It’s been a long 40 days, and we all deserve a day where we can just sit and rest.  A day where we remember the life and death of Jesus.  A day where we think about how our lives have been impacted by Jesus’ ministry.  A day where we don’t build, or plant, or write, or plan, but where we just rest.

A day where we wait.