Today is Holy Saturday, the day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. It’s one of my favorite days of the year, as it concludes my busiest week of the year as a pastor: Holy Week.
Though different church traditions observe Holy Week in different ways, in our church we hold worship services every day of the week. I spend more time at the church, more time in the pulpit and at the altar, during this week than I do in most months. Holy Week is busy.
But Holy Saturday is not busy. By the time I arrive at this day, I have my sermon for Easter Sunday finished, and with no sermon to preach at tonight’s service I find myself able to relax and rest. That’s appropriate, because in the church of Jesus’ day, Saturday was the Sabbath Day — a day of rest.
The first Holy Saturday was a day of rest for Jesus, as having finished His work of saving the world with all that He endured throughout the first Holy Week, He took His Sabbath rest in the tomb.
There’s not a lot about Holy Saturday in the Bible, with these words from Luke’s Gospel providing as much information as any:
“And on the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment” (Luke 23:56).
The “they” there refers to the women who had followed Jesus from Galilee. They had prepared spices and ointments to be used for the burial of Jesus’ body, which they presumed they would take care of after the Sabbath, on Sunday.
Of course, on Sunday the body of Jesus was gone, with Jesus having risen from the dead. But before rising again to new life on what all the evangelists call “the first day of the week,” Jesus rested on the last day of the previous week, slumbering in the tomb of Holy Saturday.
Jesus’ restful slumber in death’s tomb enables those who follow Him in faith to see their own tomb as a place of slumber. Rather than fear death, the Christian views it as a time to rest before their own resurrection to new life. As the opening prayer of our church’s gravesite rite puts it:
“O Lord Jesus Christ, by Your three-day rest in the tomb You hallowed the graves of all who believe in You, promising resurrection to our mortal bodies…” (Lutheran Service Book Agenda, p. 128).
Holy Saturday is a day to pause, before the celebration of Easter, and give thanks for all Jesus did for us in the Holy Week just past — enduring temptation and evil, and finally death for our sins.
As such a day, Holy Saturday helps us prepare for our own deaths, as we give thanks for all God did for us in our own lives of struggle with temptation and evil, even as we look forward to new life and a glorious future with His Son Jesus.
Holy Saturday is a day of rest. Having rested in Jesus, we rise to live.
The Rev. Dan O’Connor is pastor of Faith Lutheran Church in Greenfield. This weekly column is written by local clergy members.
