Silent Saturday
It's Saturday, perhaps the hardest day of this week to deal with. Jesus is in the tomb. He's dead, and as far as his friends know, he's gone for good. There's mourning to be done, but even that is short-circuited because there is also Sabbath to be done. Or, not done, as the case may be. Sabbath was (and is) a time for rest, and they had barely gotten Jesus buried before Sabbath began. The active mourning, and the finishing of the burial, would have to wait until Sunday. But the grief does not wait. This day, this Sabbath day, is one they will not forget. It is perhaps the hardest day of all.
We still don't deal well with Saturday. We don't even deal well with Friday. As early as Thursday, I noticed people making posts on social media about Easter, Jesus is risen, and so on. Even at our services, I had people comment to me that they couldn't wait until Sunday, to celebrate the resurrection. (I think some people avoid Maundy Thursday and Good Friday for just that reason—they can then go from "celebration" to "celebration" and now have to deal with the nastiness in-between.) And I'm anxious for Sunday too, to be honest, but I also want to not hurry to that point. Jesus did things on purpose, in order, and he gave us this weekend to ponder all that the cross means, all that his work on the cross is meant to do in us. When we short-circuit the cross by either rushing to Sunday or skipping Friday, we deny ourselves the benefit that this week, and especially this Saturday, can have in our soul.
Saturday, after all, was God's idea. In the very act of creation, God spent six days working, creating, bringing all that we know into being. And then, on the seventh day, Genesis says, God rested. Was God tired? Not at all! In one respect, God was setting us an example, that we were not made to work non-stop. Our bodies and souls need rest. But on another level, God was also recognizing that everything he set out to do was done. It was finished. Creation was done. And there was time then to renew, relax and be restored.
It was not a mistake that Jesus was crucified on Friday. Not only was he crucified, we are told, at the time the Passover lambs were being slaughtered, but he was also crucified at the end of the week, at the end of a week when he has been laying out the groundwork for a new creation. When he says "It is finished" on the cross, he's not just dying. He's beginning something new. Everything he came to do has been accomplished, including our salvation. And Jesus is done. He can now rest.
That's why the silent Saturday is important. We have nothing recorded in the Gospels of what the disciples did on Saturday. They are silent, mourning, observing the Sabbath, resting as they have done all their lives. And so is Jesus. His work is done. It is finished, just as it was finished at the dawn of creation. Now, new creation can begin. And begin it does—on Sunday.
But wait. Rest. Allow God to renew your soul on Saturday so that you'll be fully ready for what he's about to do on Sunday. Don't hurry to Sunday. We need this silent Saturday in order to fully appreciate what happens next.
We still don't deal well with Saturday. We don't even deal well with Friday. As early as Thursday, I noticed people making posts on social media about Easter, Jesus is risen, and so on. Even at our services, I had people comment to me that they couldn't wait until Sunday, to celebrate the resurrection. (I think some people avoid Maundy Thursday and Good Friday for just that reason—they can then go from "celebration" to "celebration" and now have to deal with the nastiness in-between.) And I'm anxious for Sunday too, to be honest, but I also want to not hurry to that point. Jesus did things on purpose, in order, and he gave us this weekend to ponder all that the cross means, all that his work on the cross is meant to do in us. When we short-circuit the cross by either rushing to Sunday or skipping Friday, we deny ourselves the benefit that this week, and especially this Saturday, can have in our soul.
Saturday, after all, was God's idea. In the very act of creation, God spent six days working, creating, bringing all that we know into being. And then, on the seventh day, Genesis says, God rested. Was God tired? Not at all! In one respect, God was setting us an example, that we were not made to work non-stop. Our bodies and souls need rest. But on another level, God was also recognizing that everything he set out to do was done. It was finished. Creation was done. And there was time then to renew, relax and be restored.
It was not a mistake that Jesus was crucified on Friday. Not only was he crucified, we are told, at the time the Passover lambs were being slaughtered, but he was also crucified at the end of the week, at the end of a week when he has been laying out the groundwork for a new creation. When he says "It is finished" on the cross, he's not just dying. He's beginning something new. Everything he came to do has been accomplished, including our salvation. And Jesus is done. He can now rest.
That's why the silent Saturday is important. We have nothing recorded in the Gospels of what the disciples did on Saturday. They are silent, mourning, observing the Sabbath, resting as they have done all their lives. And so is Jesus. His work is done. It is finished, just as it was finished at the dawn of creation. Now, new creation can begin. And begin it does—on Sunday.
But wait. Rest. Allow God to renew your soul on Saturday so that you'll be fully ready for what he's about to do on Sunday. Don't hurry to Sunday. We need this silent Saturday in order to fully appreciate what happens next.
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