Holy Saturday

And so on Holy Saturday, our Holy week comes to an end.Our journey ends with Jesus laid to rest in a new tomb within the walled gardenof Joseph of Arimathea near Golgotha.

As we begin today, I want to reflect on the work of PaulZach as he writes about Holy Saturday.

After the cross has been carriedAfter the weight is laid downAfter the body is buriedDown where the darkness surroundsAfter the end of the violenceAfter the sky has gone darkNow there is nothing but silenceBroken by the beat of our hearts
He's gone
After the last words are spoken
We lay him down in the grave
After our hearts have been broken
Have all our hopes been betrayed?He's gone

Here at the tomb with our spices
Love from our hearts is not gone
Watch 'til the breaking sun rises
What will we see in the dawn?

Paul Zach

As we listen to Luke Parker, sing Sweet Surrender,

let us take a moment to appreciate the freedom that comes on the death and resurrection ofour Lord. The full presence that we have from the sweet surrender that Jesusgave on the cross.

Todays reading comes from John 19:31-42

31 Nowit was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a specialSabbath. Because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on thecrosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken andthe bodies taken down. 32 The soldiers thereforecame and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, andthen those of the other. 33 But when they came toJesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. 34 Instead,one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a suddenflow of blood and water. 35 The man who sawit has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that hetells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. 36 Thesethings happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of hisbones will be broken,”[c] 37 and,as another scripture says, “They will look on the one they have pierced.”[d]

The Burial of Jesus

38 Later,Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was adisciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders. WithPilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. 39 Hewas accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus atnight. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-fivepounds.[e] 40 TakingJesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips oflinen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. 41 Atthe place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden anew tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. 42 Becauseit was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb wasnearby, they laid Jesus there.

Holy Saturday is a time of both absence and presence. Stillyour body and mind as you invite Jesus to be with you in this midway place.
Asking for the courage to stay in the ‘valley of the shadow of death’. how have you been able to sense God’s presence during this challenging week?

What thoughts, desires or feelings have arisen within you as you prayed withthis week’s Scripture passages?
Many Christians bypass Holy Saturday, leaping from the sorrow of Jesus’ death to the triumphant celebration of his resurrection. The church's ancient creeds invite us not to do that, but to stay with a sense of his absence, as his disciples felt it. Why do you think that is? How does the story of Jesus’ suffering and death leave you feeling?

Lord Jesus, on this holy day of quiet rest, we await yourresurrection, but we don’t want to rush by; we want to wait beside you in thatsweet surrender.

Music by Luke Parker, Salt of The Sound, Dear Gravity, Simon Wester.