My Favorite Day in Holy Week: Saturday

Most of us, I think, put our teaching emphasis on Palm Sunday and Easter. If there is any “nod” to the 40 days of Lent, the Last Supper, and the Friday Passion of the Christ, it is usually only one teaching for each. Every year in recent memory, I spend time studying and contemplating Holy Saturday … the Day of Silence.

Jesus spoke eloquently in the week(s) leading up to Friday. Time was running out out.

[Jesus said, “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.”

17 At this, some of his disciples said to one another, “What does he mean by saying, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me,’ and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?” 18 They kept asking, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We don’t understand what he is saying.” – John 16:16-17 (NIV)

How often do I also wonder what Jesus means by His response to my life. “Why did you allow this to happen?” “What does it mean?”

[Jesus said,] “All this I have told you so that you will not fall away. They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God. They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me.” – John 16:1-3 (NIV) 

The day I received the report of my 13 year-old son’s cancer, I remember driving down the road – screaming at God! If anyone passed me that day and noticed me, they would have called “911” to report “a crazy lady driving north on _____ Highway, screaming and gesturing!” Henry and I were doing alot of ministry work and giving to His children, not calling attention to ourselves – and we are sliced through the gut – our son diagnosed with a cancer that had a 25% chance of remission! Not cure, remission.

There have been other times that I have cried out to God, pleading with Him for answers – reasons why He has allowed terrible events to happen! I have cried out for others who are traveling difficult journeys and wondering if there is a god who cares! “Jody, I don’t think God really cares about me or He wouldn’t allow this to happen!”

And I remember Jesus, in the Gethsemane Garden, asking the Father 3 times to not make Him, the only son, to go through the physical pain, humiliation, and maybe worse of all, the desertion, that will occur in the next 24 hours. And the Father God’s answer? Silence. Not even the bit of comfort from a verbal response of “No” that says He heard. Jesus’ response to going down the path Father God had given Him was “hematidrosis”, sweating blood. And the next 24 hours is correctly known as The Passion of the Christ. He gave all He had in sacrifice for my sins. “It is finished.” Jesus said as He breathed His last breath. He completed His task that the Father had called Him to do.

And so I come to Saturday. Scripture tells me little. No reports of the Father speaking to someone. No rumbling inside the gravesite where Jesus laid. No visions in the night to one of the faithful. How many times have I laid in my bed with silence as my only response to the many questions passing through my mind? Silence.

Jesus shows me silence in His walk. In His ministry. What did He do? He kept walking forward in the call. The Father answered Him in silence; He answered all of His question in the next 24 hours in silence. Hmm. He kept His eye on the goal: The Cross. The Sacrifice for all.

That’s a new thought, a new piece of wisdom. When God calls me to a task, I know it is a task I have been given. How often do I allow distractions, doubts, questions to pull me away from the task & how God has given me to answer the call? Do I spend my time in prayer, follow His given wisdom, & then give God all the glory for what He has done? Without ‘tweaking’ or ‘second-guessing’ this process from God?

[Stephen said,] 51 “You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit! 52 Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him— 53 you who have received the law that was given through angels but have not obeyed it.” – Acts 7:51-53 (NIV)

Jesus is risen! The tomb is empty! Death & Satan have lost! I am going to continue to walk through this Easter week, keeping my ears & heart open for what Jesus has to say to me through God’s Word & directly through His Holy Spirit. Whatever battles are going on in my life, in this world – the battles belong to the LORD. He gets all the glory, all the honor! Hallelujah! The tomb is empty & I am walking with my Risen Savior!

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