Holy Saturday Devotion & Guide

Here, between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, set apart some time to read this short devotional by Claude Atcho or work through this 10–30 minute meditation guide. You can do these things individually or with a household.

“In the Silence,” A Devotion from Claude Atcho

From Rhythms of Faith

Luke 23:52-53

This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then he took it down and wrapped it in a linen shroud and laid Him in a tomb cut in stone, where no one had ever yet been laid.

Holy Saturday calls us to sit in the stillness of the starkest heart-ache the world has ever known: the Light of the world extinguished and the Lord of life dead. Imagine what ran through the minds and hearts of the female disciples, standing just feet away as the Lord’s body was sealed in the tomb. Imagine the grief Joseph felt, lifting and wrapping Jesus’s lifeless arms and nail-scarred hands, his bruised and breathless body in linen for burial. The Lord who spoke the words of life breathed no more.

Writer John Onwuchekwa says, “Tragedy doesn’t ruin us; hopelessness does.” The silence of Holy Saturday combines both in one fatal blow—tragedy strikes, and hope is nowhere to be found. Yet the fact that the Father does not raise Jesus immediately speaks volumes.

Holy Saturday teaches us that wherever we are overwhelmed by hopelessness, silence, or grief, we are not alone. Even in the void, God is present. In our grief and tragedy, the Lord mysteriously works. We neither grieve nor suffer alone. truths drawn from the story of Jesus’s own life. In the silence, None of these assertions are trite religious clichés—they are truths drawn from the story of Jesus’s own life. In the silence, Jesus descended into the bowels of death, snatching away its ultimate power. The hush was real and suffocating, but it was not final. Jesus would speak again, breathe again, rise again.

Holy Saturday teaches us that with God, there is always something on the other side of silence. This something does not bypass pain and grief but engulfs and redeems them. This something is resurrection.

Truth to Ponder:

Holy Saturday teaches us that God is with us in tragedy and that neither silence nor hopelessness is ever the final work.

O God of the living, on this day your Son our Savior descended to the place of the dead: Look with kindness on all of us who wait in hope for liberation from the corruption of sin and death, and give us a share in the glory of the children of God; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord. Amen.

Meditation Guide

Have a timer handy for moments of silence.

Read

John 19:38-42

After these things Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his body. Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight. So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.

Reflect

Holy Saturday. A day we often miss entirely. In our flurry and hurry of preparation to ready ourselves for the celebration of Easter morning, we forget that there was an entire 24-hour day in between the horrors of Good Friday and the joys of Easter. More than a full day between death and life. Between the last exhale and the next inhale. A full day between the darkness of despair and the dawn of new hope.

We already know the full story, so it’s easy enough for us to skip straight to the “happy ending.” That feels more comfortable and much less awkward to us, especially in this day and age. And, if we’re honest, this is what we’re tempted to do with all of our problems, griefs and “little deaths” we experience during our time on earth. We tell ourselves, “everything will be fine in the end!” We push down our discomfort and sadness, jumping straight to an optimistic perspective. We find silver linings. We sugar-coat. We strive to turn our situation around as quickly as possible, and if that doesn’t succeed, we often try to escape, or medicate, or numb ourselves from feeling the pain. These are considered normal reactions in our broken world.

But is it how God intended us to live?

Why would God allow for an entire day between Good Friday and Easter? Is it “productive?” What good does it do us? What good did it do the disciples? Couldn’t Jesus have risen on Holy Saturday? Or, for that matter, immediately after being crucified? Why did He make the disciples wait till the third day?

It seems that, through some great mystery, God chose to use the waiting and silence of Holy Saturday for some deeper meaning and purpose. God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, His ways are not our ways, and His timing is not our timing. It wasn’t Abraham’s timing, waiting for a promised child. It wasn’t Job’s timing, waiting for his family to be restored. And it wasn’t the disciples’ timing, waiting for the coming Kingdom and the resurrection.

So how do we approach these “confusing in-betweens” with appropriate health and faith? Have you ever considered how Jesus, the only perfect human to ever live, wept over the death of His friend Lazarus? He took real time to feel sadness and grief even though He knew He would resurrect Lazarus from the dead within a few hours! Jesus models time and time again that we are made as humans to slow down, to allow ourselves to feel emotions before God, and to wait for God to move in His timing.

On Holy Saturday we remember this most painfully confusing “in-between” that the disciples faced millenia ago. But we also recognize that each of us are facing our own “in-betweens” right now, as we wait for God to answer our prayers and ultimately redeem all things. We might be waiting for God to heal a disease or an emotional grief. We might be waiting for reconciliation with a friend or family member. We might be struggling with the recent loss of a life, a home, or a career. We may deeply desire a new relationship or a new chapter in life. We may be waiting for God to pull us out of a “dark night of the soul.” When we slow down, we may even simply feel the weight of the world’s brokenness and our longing for Christ to make all things new.

Yet, through each of these Holy Saturdays we live through, we are not alone. We find ourselves in the company of all who walked with Jesus before us, and even more preciously, we find ourselves in the very presence of our kind Savior who gave up His life for you and me. He who once lay still and breathless in the belly of a cold tomb now sits with us here in this moment.

SILENCE & STILLNESS

Right now, take a few moments to think about one or two “in-betweens” you’re experiencing, whether great or small. As they come to mind, allow yourself to feel sadness over your unmet longings. Silently ask God to fulfill these longings, even if you’ve asked countless times before.

Then, if possible, set a timer for 2-5 minutes to sit in silence and stillness before God. Remember that He is with you. Recognize that He also weeps with you over the “in-betweens.” Allow His presence with you now to bring comfort.

DISCUSS & REFLECT

• What stood out to you from these readings?
• What is God stirring in your heart today?

PRAY

O God, Creator of heaven and earth:
Grant that, as the crucified body of your dear Son was laid in the tomb and rested on this holy Sabbath,
so we may await with him the coming of the third day,
and rise with him to newness of life;
who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
(From the Book of Common Prayer)

END IN SILENCE

Again, set a timer for 2-5 minutes, then sit in silence and stillness before God.