In this short series, we’ll spend a few minutes every day meditating on Jesus’ journey to the Cross. From Palm Sunday to Resurrection Day, this is a sacred week in the Christian calendar—a week that changed everything. 

A Saturday That’s Silent

Read: Psalm 13

You may have heard the popular phrase, “It’s Friday. But Sunday’s coming.”

That line beautifully encapsulates the grief of Good Friday and the joy of Easter.

But it brushes past Saturday. Perhaps too quickly.

It’s not happenstance that Jesus rose on the third day. Holy Saturday is not a pause in God’s plans. It’s a day to pause for God’s plans.  

The day after the Savior hung on that tree lies in quietness. The Bible doesn’t mention in detail what happened on that Holy Saturday. Roman guards were posted outside the tomb. But beyond that, silence. From the outside, there was a decisive end. A period. 

But Saturday was, in reality, an ellipsis. It was the dot.dot.dot. of waiting, of wondering, of confusion, and of crushed hopes.

Did God ordain the day of rest so we could understand that His hiddenness is not His absence?

Did He plan the stillness so we could lay hold of the grief only to awaken to His glory?

Did He design Saturday so we could better grasp that our barrenness awaits His fullness?

For anyone who has waited and wondered, who has experienced confusion or crushed hopes, Holy Saturday is a gift. 

There are Holy Saturday moments when we cry out in the voice of the psalmist: 

How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?

How long will you hide your face from me?

How long must I wrestle with my thoughts

and day after day have sorrow in my heart?

How long will my enemy triumph over me?

But may we also remember that first Holy Saturday when Jesus made all that darkness his own; when He entered into death fully.

But then He defeated death and darkness.  So we can declare, in the words of Psalm 13:

But I trust in your unfailing love;

my heart rejoices in your salvation.

I will sing the Lord’s praise,

or he has been good to me.

This Holy Saturday, can we praise the Son of God who chose to fully enter into darkness and death? Can we wait in the darkness so we can be quickened in our spirits to the incredible light of the new dawn?

May we see Holy Saturday, not as a pause in God’s plans, but as a pause for God’s plans.

 

---

If this blog resonated with you,  SUBSCRIBE to my weekly newsletter. I would love a Facebook or Instagram follow or share if you’re on social media.