Welcome to April! Later this month we will be celebrating the greatest day of the year—the day of God’s victory. Much of the information in this edition of The Connector covers and shares the many ways we will celebrate that great day. For my article, however, I want to sit with a day that we don’t spend a whole lot of time talking about—Holy Saturday. Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday all take various levels of our attention. Holy Saturday—the space between death and resurrection—this is a place we don’t focus much thought but it is a space we are all too familiar with.
Mourning. That is what the disciples did that first Holy Saturday. Their world was rocked. In 24 hours they went from believing Jesus was going to turn the world around; set all things right; display His power and authority; and restore Israel (and them) to a place of prominence. Instead, they watched the One they loved and served be arrested, tried, condemned, and killed as a common criminal. Their world was reeling on that first Holy Saturday. Everything they had known the prior 3 years was ripped from them. Have you been there?
Waiting. The disciples had, in so many ways, sold out in their following of Jesus. Yes, from our vantage point, we can see some glaring mistakes, but every one of them dropped elements of their lives to follow Jesus. Now He was in a tomb. The life they had imagined died on that cross. The scriptures are pretty quiet about that Holy Saturday, but we know they went back to the Upper Room. Shock and confusion certainly would have described their reality. What do we do now? Have you ever asked that question?
One of the accounts shares that, prior to seeing the resurrected Jesus, some of the disciples went back to their fishing boats. They went back to what they knew. One explanation is that this was their survival tactic—they went back to what was natural for them. Maybe to keep busy. Maybe to get out of the house. Maybe to find some sense of normalcy.
Waiting for what’s next—have you been there? The disciples thought they had their purpose while they were walking with Jesus. In an instant, He was gone and they were left waiting and wondering.
Like the disciples on their fishing boats, do you ever go through the motions? Waiting for what’s next while sensing in your soul that there must be more. The disciples waited on Holy Saturday for what, in the moment they were not sure. But they had to know that—even in returning to their previous professions—nothing could or would go back to the way things were.
Much of life has been filled with mourning and waiting these last months and years. It has been a looooonnnngggg Holy Saturday. So, perhaps this Holy Saturday, April 16th you can set aside some time to name and claim your mourning and waiting. For what have you mourned and for what you long for in this next season. The truth is, for those disciples, their mourning and waiting prepared them for a life of service and devotion to the Lord Jesus that was about to explode into new and powerful realities. May the same be true for His disciples today!
So, prepare for this Easter by pondering your mourning and waitings. In doing so, may they become preparation…
Because Sunday is coming….
