Holy Saturday.
It does not always feel so holy.
Jesus, yes still set apart…but in a tomb. The disciples – suffocated with grief from the day before. The State – sated with its violence. The world – left wandering, picking up the pieces, and looking for the leader of its next mob.
It’s hard for many to imagine what that day was like. We remember history through the lens of the resurrection – an event which had yet to chan
ge the history of the universe the day after the crucifixion. This is not a privilege or a bias, but a participation in the reality we are blessed to receive. We should remember it this way. Loves open arms swallowed death and offered eternal life for all and any who choose to follow the Way of the crucified carpenter. In no way do I ever want any to forget the empty tomb, to re-enter a world w
here Jesus did not seem victorious.
Still, the chains of such a dark day clank through the centuries to today. Billions have heard of the name of Jesus. Still, many do not believe. For them, Jesus remains in the tomb. Or rather, his remains were once in a tomb if such a person could ever be believed in. Sin still reigns. Good is invented by the tribe and speaks the language of violence to overcome evil. One might as well survive the agony. They have not heard nor seen the power of the risen Lord and the Holy Spirit. The Messiah remains a myth.
sex and violence,
security and comfort,
convenience and control,
rage and entertainment,
distraction and destruction,
rebellion and order,
religion and tribe,
prestige and pride –
self-imposed holy Saturday shackles suffocating us, stifling us, sending us downstream away from the eternal springs of Sunday’s salvation;
A world already transformed in the good news of the empty tomb, needing only its inhabitants to turn towards the dawn of the new beginning awaiting at the empty tomb.
Love still reigns in Jesus even if the world still does not recognize the uncoercive power of the empty tomb.
As we wait for that final day when the holy Saturdays of this world retreat from the dawn of the second coming, may those who know the joy of the resurrection be a light for those who remain in the darkness.
Look for the light tomorrow, He is risen!
