Holy Saturday & The Great Vigil

Listen to this meditation

 

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Genesis 1:1-2:2 [The Story of Creation]
Genesis 7:1-5, 11-18, 8:6-18, 9:8-13 [The Flood]
Genesis 22:1-18 [Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac]
Exodus 14:10-15:1 [Israel's deliverance at the Red Sea]
Isaiah 4:2-6 [God's Presence in a renewed Israel]
Isaiah 55:1-11 [Salvation offered freely to all]
Ezekiel 36:24-28 [A new heart and a new spirit]
Ezekiel 37:1-14 [The valley of dry bones]
Zephaniah 3:12-20 [The gathering of God's people]

Holy Saturday Meditation

Matthew 27:57-66

This day in Holy Week is often overlooked. Even if you by grace and by grit get to every Holy Week liturgy the church offers, it seems a little much to come and worship Good Friday, Holy Saturday in the morning, the Easter Vigil that night, and come back for all the hallelujahs and the hoopla Easter morning. Even the Church can only manage a one-page liturgy for Holy Saturday (BCP, p. 283).

The day-- and the liturgy-- are about the in-between time: after Jesus is dead on the cross and before the astounding news of his resurrection. It’s an ordinary, matter-of-fact, all-too-familiar story of funeral arrangements and burying a dead man. Most of us have been there.

But it is a crucial piece of the Gospel, often overlooked because it’s either so obvious that we think it doesn’t need saying, or such a part of our faith that we don’t give it a second thought. But in an age when so many don’t know the story of Jesus, or are indifferent to it, or are cynical or skeptical of the Church that bears his name, this is a crucial part of the story that needs hearing: that is, that Jesus was dead.

Really, truly, brutally, dead as hell and lying in the tomb.

Without insisting on and upholding this part of the story, it’s easy to see why Easter gets diluted as a celebration of  the annual renewal of life at springtime, marked by colored eggs and little bunnies and big hats.

Jesus, crucified, dead and buried. Ponder that reality for a bit; it’s a reality we all share. And yet, we are not left there. God does not leave us there at the graveside. Easter comes, Christ is risen. And in him, we, too shall rise. In Christ, death is real, but it isn’t permanent. In Christ, death becomes merely the horizon beyond which we cannot see.

There’s a great story in one of the non-canonical writings about Jesus. It’s set on this day, Holy Saturday, with Jesus dead in the tomb. Satan enters the tomb to enjoy his victory. He stands there looking at Jesus lying there, dead. Suddenly, Jesus eyes open and he laughs…laughs in the face of the devil. Death and hell cannot contain him. God has the last word, and it is a word of life. He has the last laugh, and it is Easter.

Here’s the Collect for Holy Saturday:
 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 )BCP, p. 283)