Holy Saturday, Holy Rest

 

Scripture

Luke 23:53-56

  ⁵³ Then [Joseph of Arimathea] took [Jesus's body] down, wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid it in a rock-hewn tomb where no one had ever been laid. ⁵⁴ It was the day of Preparation, and the sabbath was beginning.⁵⁵ The women who had come with him from Galilee followed, and they saw the tomb and how his body was laid. ⁵⁶ Then they returned, and prepared spices and ointments.

On the sabbath they rested according to the commandment.  (NRSV)

Devotion

 On Monday, I described Holy Week as a spiritual marathon of sorts.  Those heavily involved in church life often spend the entire week running from service to service and emotion to emotion.  Many of us are gasping for breath by the time we hit Good Friday...and there is still the all-important Easter morning to observe.  Add in special traditions like Easter Egg hunts, Saturday night vigils, and sunrise services (not to mention all the unexpected situations that pop up any week, and it's no wonder that most church workers are ready to crawl into bed as soon as the regular Easter service is over.  Yes, we are elated that Christ has risen.  Like most marathon runners, we are also exhausted.  Even those who know how to pace ourselves tend to feel physically and emotionally drained by Sunday afternoon. 

As someone who likes to stay busy, I find a great deal to love about Holy Week.  I enjoy all the special services and the extra meditations and other ways we choose to mark Jesus's final week of life, death, and resurrection.  A  couple years ago, though, I realized I was focusing so much time and energy on being everywhere and getting everything done that I was neglecting to take in the power of the Passion story itself.   This realization disturbed me.  After all, the whole point of this week is to reflect on what Christ has done for us as we follow him to the cross.  I may have been doing all the things, but I was missing out on the  'holy" part of the Holy Week.  That was the year that I made a point of beginning to set aside part of Good Holy Saturday to just be with Jesus.

The Gospel say little about what happened on the first Holy Saturday.  We know that after the women who had accompanied Jesus to Jerusalem saw where Jesus's body had been laid and prepared the burial spices, they honored God's commandment to rest on the Sabbath.  We don't know what that rest looked like.  Perhaps they wept in silence.  Perhaps they spent time hugging and praying together... or sharing personal stories of Jesus with one another.  Maybe one of them just crawled into bed and refused to get up.  One thing is for certain:  as they paused, so did the world.  

We also don't know exactly what Jesus was up to while his body lay in the tomb.  Some believe that his soul descended into Sheol (the Hebrew term for where the dead go to rest) in order to offer the people there eternal life.  Others think that his soul rested from all that he had just endured.  Whatever happened in that secret place, Holy Saturday give us a moment to pause...to breathe...to come to terms with the fact that in Christ, God himself died so that we may experience the power of his love and forgiveness.  When we are in the special place of rest, we give the Holy Spirit room to move within us and remind us anew of the power of God's love.  Then, we will be ready to experience the joy of the Resurrection that is about to come.  

In these final hours leading up to Easter joy, let us find time take a break from our hectic lives and rest with Jesus.  To help us do so, here is a poem by current seminarian Rachel Lemke:

Holy week is now moving

ahead, and taking us, too.

Despite the rest we're craving,

we know that this, too, is true:

The liturgy excites us,

       the passion is humbling;

the music now invites us

our sin--to the cross--to bring.

 As the week keeps moving on,

 and we lose ourselves wholly:

Let's look for Jesus at dawn.

Let's remember the holy.

Prayer

 Today's prayer is more of a guided meditation.  I invite you to enter into a time of physical, mental, and emotional stillness.  Then, turn on the volume on your device and watch the following animation of Christ lifting people out of the depths of Sheol on Holy Saturday.  As you watch, give your spirit space to truly reflect on the power of Jesus's love for us.