Silent Saturday

Silent Saturday (also called "Holy Saturday") is an opportunity in our Lenten journey to pause between Good Friday and Easter. So often we desire to put the tragedy of the cross behind us, and rush past the tomb to the resurrection. But there is a gift in embracing the desolation of silence. It's embracing the unknown, the mystery, and allowing the Gospel to infiltrate the places of our hearts that have question marks and even grief. It is in this place that we are held by God. It is there that we can rest in the God who is with us - Immanuel.

Below is an excerpt from "A Just Passion" (the devotional that our community has been engaging this season), as well as a song from our Associate Pastor Joel Bidderman. We invite you to pause for a few minutes to observe Silent Saturday.

Do you work wonders for the dead?
Do the shades rise up to praise you?
PSALM 88:10

In times of trauma, aren’t we tempted to wonder if this particular problem is too big for God? God may have been sufficient when we were younger, but what can he do when our marriage is in trouble or the loneliness of another year stretches before us? What will God do about the darkness in our heart that we just can’t shake? When will he do something about the pain we see all around?

The disciples must have considered these questions on Holy Saturday. They hid for a reason. They “had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel” (Luke 24:21), but now all appeared lost. The crucifixion of Jesus seemed to be a tragedy so all-encompassing there was no future. What good were all those things he had taught them if death still ruled over him? The experience of the disciples in the wake of Jesus’ death stands in for all our disappointments. We too have moments when it appears as if God failed us. There are seemingly unanswered prayers that will trouble us until we see him face-to-face.

The good news of Holy Saturday is not that the disciples waited with faith. They did not. Often, we do not either. There are moments when the traumas in our lives are too much and we are overcome with despair. Sometimes it is all just too much for us.

But God does not share our anxieties. The latest theory claiming to disprove his existence does not trouble him nor do supposed threats to his power. As the psalm reminds us, “He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord has them in derision” (Psalm 2:4 NRSV). Christ knew he would rise again. If the experience of the disciples stands in for our fears, then the peace of Christ serves as God’s answer to our troubled hearts. We can be at peace because God reigns even over the death that unnerves us. We end Lent with the confidence that all will be well.

This is how the season of Lent concludes. Things are quiet. We are silent. We stand at the tomb wondering what God will do next. Whether we have kept our fasts or failed has no bearing on the final outcome. God either has the power to raise Christ from the dead, or he does not. We are Christians because we have concluded that he does. That means we can rest.

***Esau McCaulley is associate professor of New Testament at Wheaton College and a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. He is also the editor of the Fullness of Time book series on the church year and the author of Lent, the first volume in that series. [Excerpt from “A Just Passion,” by Ruth Haley Barton, Sheila Wise Rowe, Tish Harrison Warren, Terry M. Wildman, et al., pg. 71-72]