Holy Saturday

I often think about the disciples on Holy Saturday. I see them heartbroken, confused, and defeated. They had heard Jesus say that he would be resurrected but now that promise seemed like false hope and empty naiveté. Their savior changed them, helped them see a new way, but now it seems like that’s all that this savior would do. Now he is dead and Rome is suspicious of those who gathered around Jesus, so the best chance to survive and not suffer Jesus’ fate is to go back to life as they knew it before.

For those of us who know the end of the story it is easy to hold the tension of Holy Saturday. We are getting prepared for Easter. Cooking, getting outfits ready, and those of us who are pastors might be practicing the Easter sermon. But today over two thousand years ago, followers of Jesus did not know, the world did not know, creation longing, aching for salvation yet salvation now seemed farther away than ever. Sin’s winter attempting a hostile takeover over spring!

We too go back to our old ways. Maybe we have tried to start again so many times that we feel defeated, maybe life has thrown a few twists that we did not expect, maybe we are just tired of trying again.

This Holy Saturday hold still . . . look around . . . know that there are many who get it, who have been hopeless, who are afraid, who think that maybe all these years of following Jesus have been for naught, who now think that their savior was a sham.

This Holy Saturday hold still . . . look around . . . creation too is longing with you! Pay attention for morning is coming . . .