Between Crucifixion and Resurrection: What Will You Do with Your Own Silent Saturdays?

The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.” “Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.” So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard. —Matthew 27:62-66

What Are You Waiting For?

On the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, we rest in the tension of silence, the unknown and anticipation. Let’s turn our gaze to that Saturday, April 4th, 33 AD. Let me paint the picture for you: The Jewish elite believe that they have silenced the heretical radical Jesus of Nazareth. The Romans believe that they have appeased the Jewish leaders by trying this Jesus in an illegal trial under the cover of darkness for crimes against the Roman state. And finally, the followers of Jesus believe that their leader is no more, they are ripe with anguish, shock, and disbelief. 

All of them are wrong. 

You see, even though none of them realize it on this silent Saturday, each of these people groups was in a moment of waiting. The followers of Jesus were waiting for a glorious resurrection, as Jesus had foretold, (Matthew 16:21, Matthew 20:17-19) Jesus’ ascension and the ultimate pouring out of the Holy Spirit, which we see in Acts 2. The Jewish elite are waiting to have their religious worlds rocked by a Messiah who just refused to stay dead. And even Rome was waiting to become the home of the church, a pagan people transformed by the blood of Christ. 

And what about you? In your own silent Saturdays, in your moments and seasons of grief, loss, rejection, hurt, isolation, despair and discouragement—what are you waiting for? Are you waiting for a resolution? For God to just fix it for you? Are you waiting for a breakthrough or restoration? Are you clinging to hope, but honestly just feel so hopeless? What should you and I do in these anxiety-filled moments and seasons?

First, Go Back to Friday

To find a better answer to what we should do, where we might look, and how we can have hope in those Silent Saturdays of life, I want to point you back to Friday, April 3rd AD. On this day Christ is on the cross. The messianic prophecy of Isaiah is on full display for all to see. 

He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. —Isaiah 53:3-5

Christ is scourged and beaten and bare on the cross. And even as he is in the physical act of dying he has this conversation with the convicts who hang beside him. 

One of the criminals who were hanged there was hurling abuse at Him, saying, “Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us!” But the other responded, and rebuking him, said, “Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our crimes; but this man has done nothing wrong.” And he was saying, “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom!” And He said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.” —Luke 23:39-43 

Consider what Jesus said to that convict on the cross in verse 43 of Luke 23. “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” 

Experience Paradise Within the Suffering

Now, contemporary scholars have theorized that this means that Jesus, on that day that the world was waiting, was with the Father in Paradise. When we are in our own moments of waiting it certainly does not feel like paradise, does it? Waiting oftentimes feels more like anguish, anxiety, and doubt. Often we doubt that the thing we are waiting for will actually come to fruition. We are in anxiety about all the details and all the things that could go wrong while we wait. We feel anguish and uncertainty… none of these feels like paradise. I highly doubt that neither the Romans, the Jewish elite, nor the followers of Jesus would describe that day as paradise. Would you? I assume not. 

However, what we do have the opportunity to do in our own seasons of grief and suffering and waiting is to rest in the security of the Father. In our own suffering, we have the opportunity to be so close to the Father it can produce an otherworldly source of comfort, peace, and possibly even joy. 

We can experience a sort of paradise in our own suffering here on earth because we know something that the witnesses of the crucifixion did not: We know that Sunday is coming. With the knowledge of this impending Sunday and with it the hope which lies firmly in our resurrected Savior we have an opportunity to respond in faith, hope, peace, love, and yes, even joy. You see, as Jesus promised, we will experience suffering in this world, but holdfast my dear friends, because Jesus overcame this world! 

Prayer

Prayer: Lord, you see me in my own broken place of waiting. I know that you know the pain of a waiting place, a silent Saturday. As I sit in this silence Jesus, I invite you into the quiet and ask you to be my calm. Jesus, I know that you are the great physician, will you mend my broken heart? Amen. 

Additional Scripture: Luke 23:39-43, Mark 15:42-47, Luke 23:50-56, John 19:39-42, Acts 2:17-21

Photo Credit: ©lightstock 

Rachel Baker is the author of Deconstructed, a Bible study guide for anyone who feels overwhelmed or ill-equipped to study the word of God. She is a pastor’s wife and director of women’s ministries, who believes in leading through vulnerability and authenticity. She is a cheerleader, encourager, and sometimes drill-sergeant. She serves the local church alongside her husband, Kile, in Northern Nevada. They have two amazing kiddos and three dogs. Rachel is fueled by coffee, tacos, and copious amounts of cheese. For more on her and her resources to build your marriage, see her website: www.rachelcheriebaker.com or connect with her on Instagram at @hellorachelbaker.