Holy Saturday

Today is the last day of Holy Week and the final day of Lent. Holy Saturday is that uncomfortable day where we don’t quite know what to do with ourselves. On some level I think it’s supposed to be awkward. It’s the day sandwiched between Good Friday and Easter Sunday symbolizing the day when Jesus lay dead, buried in a tomb close to the place he was murdered. It is the darkest day.

In the Bible we see images of dejected followers of Jesus trying to make sense of it all. They were mourning the loss of their friend. Feeling defeated, they wondered if everything they believed about Jesus was a complete sham. They were infuriated that the ‘bad guys’ won, yet again, and would continue to make their lives a living Hell. They hid from the authorities that killed Jesus out of fear for their own lives. They were confused, having no idea what to do or where to turn.

So for us on Holy Saturday, we try to enter into those emotions by imagining what it would be like to think that Jesus was dead and gone forever. For me, nothing would make sense if that were the case. My work in the streets with broken, abused and sick people would make no sense. My struggle with my own health issues would make no sense. Trying to understand the environmental destruction of the Earth would make no sense. Wrapping my head around global poverty, pain and suffering would make no sense. Death would make no sense.

Today as I try to imagine what that would be like, I feel those emotions that the disciples must have been feeling: fear, grief, loss, defeat, anger, anxiety and confusion.

But I have the advantage of knowing with full certainty that Easter is coming!

In our work on the streets, while we often feel those Holy Saturday emotions, as Christians we have the full certainty that Easter is coming. So let’s do our best to live in that hope as we try to be ‘The Hand of God in the Heart of the City’.

Peace,

Dion Oxford, Director of Mission Integration