The rhythms of Easter move from the triumphal entry on Palm Sunday to a meal with friends on Maundy Thursday to the gory horror of Good Friday that finishes with Jesus in a tomb—the story seemingly coming to a supremely tragic conclusion. We seldom talk about what comes next—the incredibly bizarre liminal space between Good Friday and Easter morning. In my tradition, that strange day has a name—Holy Saturday.
I feel Holy Saturday is powerfully instructive for us as believers. We are living through our own Holy Saturday—not between death and resurrection but between this present age and the ultimate consummation of all things. We wait for the day when all things will be made new but until then, sit in the awkward middle bit of the grand story of creation. We know there is another episode after the cliffhanger, but here we are now, in the space between, much like Jesus’ first followers, doing our own type of waiting.
For those living on this side of the Resurrection, we know that there is a resolution to the dissonant minor chord of Good Friday. Thanks be to God for resolving the chord and inaugurating new creation on Easter Sunday. What a great time to be alive! Yet what should we do while we are waiting for the full completion of the Easter story? At Masterworks, each Good Friday, we ask our teams to find an organization that needs support and we give ourselves, our time, and our energy to serve others. To me, this feels like the rightest response to this already/not-yet, in-between space we find ourselves in—to continue to do the things that Jesus told us to do, to serve in His way, in His name, so that others might have a tangible taste of His love, kindness, and concern.
I hope you can pause this Holy Saturday, in the space between the Cross and the empty tomb, between the Resurrection and His making of all things new, and allow yourself to be filled with hope just as Paul instructed Titus: “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.” Titus 2:12-14
Towards a Holy Saturday and Happy Easter!
