Holy Saturday

Good morning all! Just two more devotionals to go! Also if you are around McMinnville today there is an Easter Egg hunt at Parkview at 10am and an Easter Vigil in the sanctuary tonight at 8.  See you there!

Today’s scripture: Matthew 27:57-66

 

When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who was also a disciple of Jesus. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus; then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. So Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock. He then rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb. The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, ‘Sir, we remember what that impostor said while he was still alive, “After three days I will rise again.” Therefore command that the tomb be made secure until the third day; otherwise his disciples may go and steal him away, and tell the people, “He has been raised from the dead”, and the last deception would be worse than the first.’ Pilate said to them, ‘You have a guard of soldiers; go, make it as secure as you can.’ So they went with the guard and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone.

Growing up I remember that Holy Saturday was the worst!  There had been so much in my mind going on and on Saturday there really isn’t much going on.  Here I had my Easter dress ready to go.  I was ready to sing Every Morning is Easter Morning (which is what my church growing up traditionally sang at the end of service while holding hands). We had dyed our eggs usually by Saturday but couldn’t hide them and find them yet. Our Easter baskets were out ready to be filled in the morning.   We were ready for Easter and here we had to wade through Holy Saturday. It was almost as bad as Christmas Eve…not quite but almost although there was nothing extra on Holy Saturday like there is on Christmas Eve.

As I have gotten older I value Holy Saturday for its same anticipation but also its stillness.  Jesus has been laid in the empty tomb that would have looked very similar to the tomb up above. I remember seeing these tombs in Israel and thinking about how much smaller it was than I expected and how much larger the stone was in front.
In fact when, in the morning the women ask who will roll the stone, it’s a valid question! That thing is heavy!  The stone would have weighed 1-2 tons depending on the type of stone and where it was positioned, etc.  But besides that point, we are all just waiting today.  We all just get to take a moment to breathe and anticipate.  Not too different from Christmas Eve in a way… a little different anticipation but still anticipation for new life and love coming to earth.  I have come to really value Holy Saturday and to try to enjoy it fully.  Today in the midst of egg hunts and vigils I am hoping to take some time to look around, to relax, and to reflect on what the inbetween means for me this year.  I  am hoping to look at what is to come in the 50 great days of Easter that will begin again very soon (did you know that Easter is 50 days long?).  And I will take a moment to be thankful for you, reader, thank you for giving your time each morning during Lent and reflecting. Thank you for responding and letting me have the honor of talking with you! Thank you!
What will you do today to honor this Saturday?
I still can’t wait for tomorrow though too…..:)
Peace,
Court

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s