"The Great In-Between Time" A Holy Saturday Reflection

This is the great in-between time. The time of silence after the Earth shook and the Curtain in the Temple was torn in two. The time when all Creation – subject to death – groaned at the death of the Divine Son who took that ignoble, shameful punishment on the cross onto Himself so that we might be freed from death forever.

But in that moment, when darkness covered the face of the Earth and the shadow of darkness fell over men’s hearts, it must have seemed like this was the end of all the beautiful hope Jesus had shared with His disciples, with the broken, with the outcast, with the ones the world said were worthless.

For those who followed him, who hoped against hope that God would send a great Liberator to free them from the oppressive rule of the Romans, it must have seemed like the world had ended. Echoing Jesus’ own last words on the cross, how many disciples, how many of the women and men who followed them, cried out in their heart of hearts, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

They longed for the way He blessed the bread before He broke it in their presence, for the way He shared meals with Pharisees and tax collectors alike, for the way He embraced sinners and challenged would-be saints to to take an honest look at their own hearts, for the way He welcomed children to hear His teaching, for the way He called all to forgive and be forgiven.

But now He lay in a cold tomb, with a stone rolled over the door, the seal of Caesar impressed upon it, the deepest darkness within; and his disciples are in hiding, ashamed that they had fled when they should have stood bravely by their Rabbi, their Messiah, their Lord.

This in-between time, what we call Holy Saturday, reminds us that we all are subject to frailty, illness, decay, and death because of our sins. Our world has been darkened by sin. The innocent suffer, the needy go hungry, the sojourner is deprived of justice – all because of the choices we all have made. We all have allowed our hearts to be darkened like cold tombs, and deep down, we all know that our hearts could be warmed and healed if only we could roll that heavy stone away from the door to let the light of God in. But that stone is too heavy for any one of us to lift.

But death does not have the final say. Hatred will not be the loudest voice forever. Addiction and abuse will not always enslave the ones we love. Christ died so that death itself might be overcome, the fires of hatred quenched by love, the chains of addiction broken, the wounds of abuse forever healed.

Look! A new day dawns! Why look for the living among the dead? It is done! He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty He will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life. Those who conquer will inherit all His promises. He will be their God and they will be His children. See, He makes all things new!

#HolyWeek #HolySaturday #Nazarene