Holy Saturday - A Day of Silence
A Day of Silence
Holy Saturday—all is silent in the world. There is the heavy weight of finality in the air—Jesus has died, his followers are observing the Sabbath and a massive stone seals the tomb.
The stone was put in place because the Pharisees remembered that Jesus said he would rise after three days. It was not typical for a stone and guard to be placed in front of the tomb of a dead guy. They did not do it because they thought he really would rise from the dead, they did it because they thought his disciples would try to come and steal the body.1
The followers on that first Holy Saturday did not have the same anticipation for Sunday that we have today, in light of the resurrection. Instead, they sat in a heavy silence marked by the finality of Jesus’ death.
The Anguish of Saturday
I imagine this would have been the hardest Sabbath they ever had to observe because a Sabbath is a day of rest, and yet the Messiah that they had hoped would give them ultimate rest had just been crucified.
In their grief, perhaps taking a day of rest was necessary so that they could process what had happened the day before. Silence would have allowed them the time to process their inner thoughts and try to make sense of a world where Jesus was dead.
They could have been holding their breath to see if Jesus’ foretelling of his resurrection really would come to pass (if they remembered it). It’s as if the great inhale had occurred on Friday, and Holy Saturday is the pause before the even greater exhale on Sunday.
Silence Honours the Sacrifice
Tomorrow will be our day of great rejoicing and it will be anything but silent. The good news was quickly shared among the first followers and we will do the same when our shouts of “Alleluia” ring out for the first time since Lent began.
But just as we take a moment of silence during Remembrance Day to honour the sacrifice of the fallen soldiers, today we spend Holy Saturday in silence to honour the sacrifice of Christ.