The Liminal
Psalms 23:4 (ESV)
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
In this season of lent, I want to take some time to talk about Saturday of the crucifixion weekend. We spend a lot of time in anguish over the activities of Friday and rejoicing in the events of Sunday, but we don’t often sit in the confusion, brokenness, and disarray of Saturday. Maybe the reason we don’t spend a lot of time discussing it is because all four gospels skip from Joseph of Arimathea laying Jesus’ body in a tomb on Friday to the day after the Sabbath – Sunday – when the women go to the tomb.
But I have to wonder what that Sabbath day was like for the followers of Jesus – the disappointment, the shock, the disbelief that must have been going through every follower of Jesus' mind. The Messiah had come and Rome was still in power; the Jewish believers' vision and expectation of a military revolution had been torn apart.
In my mind's eye, all of the disciples were laying in bed weeping – unable to eat, unable to sleep, unable to be consoled, ashamed that they left Jesus in his hour of need, afraid they might be next, and unsure how to move forward. All the while, they held on to a glimmer of hope that maybe Jesus would rise from the dead.
This day of disorientation feels so familiar to me. So much of our human experience feels like Saturday of Holy Week – sitting squarely in the tension between heartache and hope, plodding our way through uncharted territory, and wondering when things will be back to normal. The good news is that God was and is God over Saturday too. Even though Jesus was in the tomb, God was still ruling over all.
Colossians 1:16-17 (ESV)
For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
As we approach Easter, I encourage you to find solidarity with the believers at this moment in our Christian heritage, solidarity as we wait to see the hand of the Lord move in our own lives, for the prayers yet to be answered, and our hopes that are left lingering.
