Holy Saturday Sabbath

Holy Saturday. I cannot even begin to imagine what’s going through the minds of the disciples at this point. Far as I’m aware, while there is plenty written about the hours leading up to the crucifixion, Christ’s death and being laid in the grave, and while there is plenty written about what happened after Holy Saturday, we don’t have any details about what happened on Holy Saturday.

We can speculate – based on human tendencies. Based on how we might feel in this circumstance. Based on historical facts.

Just days before, everyone was rejoicing at Jesus’ riding into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Then, they might have been shocked at Jesus’ overturning the tables in the Temple as He declared His Father’s house was a “house of prayer but you have turned it into a den of thieves“.

They dined with Him at His “last supper”. They walked with Him throughout His ministry – many who had been with Him since the very beginning.

Imagine, for a moment, your closest friend and ally – someone who has been with you since the very beginning, someone you walked with, talked with – now, suddenly, executed though innocent. Now dead. Buried in a tomb.

How would you feel? What would be going through your mind?

The photo image I created for this post is only a depiction of what the disciples must’ve been going through on that Holy Saturday – a sort of “pause”, if you will. A moment to “catch their breath” and to think about all that had just happened. A moment of dispair and of rest on the Sabbath.

Look closely, what do you see?

Darkness. A crown of thorns on the floor. Nails in Peter’s hands. Heads hanging low. Silence.

However, in just hours, that would all change as the world would begin to realize what happened. On Good Friday, as the bodies of Christ and the two criminals were removed from the crosses they had been nailed to, the custom was to break the legs of those who were still alive so they couldn’t flee.

When the soldiers came to Jesus, the experts – the ones whose job it was to know when a subject was dead, or not – declared Christ was already dead. So, it was not necessary to break His legs. He was laid in the tomb, and a huge stone was rolled to seal the tomb.

He was dead, and buried.

But, that was not the end of the story.

The best is yet to come. Sunday is on the way.

Blessings.