Holy Saturday (Apr 1-8)
This week in snapshots:
Happy Saturday, beautiful humans!
I’ve had a fantastic time celebrating Holy Week - got snowed in by 2-5 feet of snow (24+ hours of continuous snowfall!) and then proceeded to hang out with so many of my favorite people :) I’ve been reading in John to follow along with the events of the week.
Today in the Holy Week is known as “Holy” or “Silent” Saturday in the re-membering of the Christ-story. This is the day Jesus’ crucified body has been laid to rest in a tomb. After breaking the prophetic absence of the previous 400 years, the LORD’s silence settles again over Israel. All of the words he spoke, all of his miracles, all of the hopes and dreams that Jesus raised during his 3 years of ministry are lying dead behind a rock, and the people who knew him, loved him, and believed him are left to reminisce and grieve.
John’s gospel account of the passion week is pretty intense. He spends 5 chapters (almost 25% of his gospel!) describing the night of Jesus’ betrayal! And like, 2 verses describing the day after his death…
I suppose after a night like that, the next day you’d be pondering every last word Jesus spoke. You might have even written it all down in between bouts of tears. Since he’s dead, you realize that he can’t be the Messiah - so what did his soliloquy mean? Why did he wash your feet? How did he do all of those miracles if he wasn’t actually the son of God - as evidenced by his deformed body lying in the ground?
What do you do with all the hopes and dreams he cultivated in you these past 3 years?
I imagine the silence was overflowing with disappointment. The night before, Jesus said, “Ask for anything in my name and it will be given to you,” but now he and his name are buried. How can I ask now? What would I even ask for? The night before, Jesus said, “I will never leave you or abandon you.” How dare he say that if he was just going to leave!? He also said, “Take heart - I have overcome the world!” If his overcoming means dying, what good is it?
The conversations I have with silence have led me to conclude I live to “avoid disappointment” instead of “aspiring to delight.” Fear informs my decisions more often than love. I know my God knows how devastating disappointment is - “hope deferred makes the heart sick.”
Tomorrow we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection, but today? Today, what has made your heart sick? What disappointments are you avoiding? What hopes and dreams are dead and buried in your heart?
If you don’t acknowledge your sickness, you won’t be able to seek healing. And we know that tomorrow is coming, but there is still time today to identify where you need resurrection. Only the seed that dies is able to transform into a flower, a crop, or a tree.
Only the buried hope or dream is able to transform into new life.
Do you have any sicknesses you remember today? Or any dreams that are dead and buried today - that need transforming, that need redeeming?
I know tomorrow we can celebrate the redeemed, the resurrected, the healed - but today?
Today is silent. Today is holy.
Peace be with you, as Jesus promised.
-Beth
