04082023 – Holy Saturday
Holy Saturday is considered by some to be “the forgotten day” amidst Holy Week.
We are hard-pressed to explain what happened on that first Holy Saturday.
Christians remember the institution of the Eucharist and the foot washing and the stripping of the church on Holy Thursday.
For sure they recall the brutality of Jesus’ sacrificial suffering on Good Friday. Most churches celebrate some form of Tenebrae service, meaning a liturgy of darkness and of shadows…it is a foreboding day.
It goes without saying that we celebrate the empty tomb on Easter Sunday. A day of joy. A day of wonder. A day of beauty and song…A day of gladness and celebration.
Yet Holy Saturday – often remains – in the shadows…somehow more mysterious. Almost as if we are stuck.
We know it was the Sabbath Day. We know that all the sabbath day restrictions would have been in place.
You can’t do this. You can’t do that. You can do no work on the Sabbath.
You may walk, but only as many steps as it would take you to walk to the Synagogue and back again.
It is a day dedicated to the Lord your God.
A Day of reflection.
A Day of Rememberance…all that the Lord has done for you.
It is a day of quiet and solitude.
And this particular sabbath is a day for mourning. A day for tears. But they do not flow for everyone.
Jesus lays dead…entombed.
Most people will ignore and skip the Church’s remembrance of Holy Saturday.
It is not for everyone. It hits a little too close to home. It can be uncomfortable.
No one, however, gets to ignore and skip the reality of “Holy Saturday in life.”
Holy Saturday is the in-between time.
The tragedy of the crucifixion is past but the glories of the resurrection are not yet here.
We are neither here nor there. We are stuck in the middle.
What was – is no more – and what will be – is not yet clear or known.
It feels as if there is nowhere to go and nothing to do. We are stuck. Stuck on Saturday.
We are left with our thoughts, our memories, our doubts, our fears, and sometimes with our anger and our guilt.
Again, we find ourselves stuck.
What Holy Saturday arguably teaches us most is about “our humanity.”
Traditionally, this is a solemn day for mourning.
We are called to act as if someone beloved in our family has died; we are asked to consider “what it would have been like” if we were close friends of Jesus when his life was taken.
This is far from mere “spiritual pageantry” — it’s where the rubber hits the road.
It is reality. It is life, as we know it. It is life as we will experience it.
We will experience Holy Saturdays in our lives. There is no stopping these days, these times from occurring and coming.
When someone dear and near is taken from us, we once again realize that human beings were not made to be alone.
We seek out others.
We need others.
Being alone with our thoughts, alone without someone else to talk to, is not always a good thing.
We need a physical presence, even if, no words are spoken…or ever exchanged.
Just knowing, at this moment. At this time. We are not alone.
Someone is there.
Someone actually present with us….
Someone to remind us that we are not alone in our sadness, our anger, our guilt, and in our grieving. Others grieve right along with us…beside us…near to us.
Someone else understands.
Holy Saturday is a day of silence and stillness, waiting and wondering, remembering and hoping.
Holy Saturday comes to us in many ways but it always seems to involve death; the death of Jesus, the death of a loved one, the death of a relationship, and the death of hopes and dreams.
In the church calendar, Holy Saturday is one day once per year.
Not so in life.
Those of you who have suffered the death of a loved one know that you do not move from Good Friday to Easter Sunday in just one day.
Holy Saturday can last months, years, or even a lifetime. There is no rhyme or reason. It takes what it takes. It lasts as long as it lasts. We must deal with, what we must deal with…
Perhaps that is what faithfulness looks like on Holy Saturday.
As we sit inside the gloom of Holy Saturday and rightfully mourn the murder of our Lord, we must recall that the only path forward is found in our loving relationships with others and in standing firm with our God.
We were not meant to do this alone.
The process, the event, is meant to be shared.
Thank God for those around us. Thank God for those who stick with us. We really truly need each other.
Amen.