Saturday, April 3, 2021
Holy Saturday
The Rev. Nathan Bourne
The Collect
O God, Creator of heaven and earth: Grant that, as the crucified body of your dear Son was laid in the tomb and rested on this holy Sabbath, so we may await with him the coming of the third day, and rise with him to newness of life; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Readings: Job 14:1-14, 1 Peter 4:1-8, John 19:38-42 & Psalm 31:1-4,15-16
Holy Saturday is one of the most challenging days of the church year. It sits between the agony of anguish of Good Friday and the joy and celebration of Easter like a pause, an ellipsis. I never really know how to feel or what to focus on. It’s usually a day I spend getting ready for Easter – baking or cooking whatever we’ll eat the next day, but I tend to still carry with me some of the weight of Good Friday.
Holy Saturday has long been known as the day of the “Harrowing of Hell”. In between Good Friday and Easter morning Christians from different backgrounds believe that Jesus “descended to the dead” (as our creed puts it) in order to raise with him in the resurrection all who died before he was born. In the Orthodox icon above, we see Jesus grabbing Adam and Eve by the wrists, pulling them up with him, restoring them to life in God. It signifies that Jesus’ resurrection was not only his own, but the resurrection of all humanity. In the moment captured in the icon, Adam and Eve are caught between death and new life. It embodies the in-between place of Holy Saturday.
We are all in an in-between place right now. We’re in the time of the year when the snow has melted but the trees have not yet put out flowers or leaves. The world is full of potential. It feels like we’re in the same place with the pandemic. We’ve been through Good Friday (though the current uptick in cases is worrying), but we’ve not yet reached Easter morning. How do we inhabit this in-between time? Holy Saturday is the link between Good Friday and Easter. It’s a day of paradoxes, holding together the grief and mourning of Good Friday and the joyful anticipation of Easter. My Holy Saturday prayer is that I may do that same thing with grace. I pray that I can honestly and openly mourn what has been lost while at the same time looking ahead to what is to come with joyful anticipation. And I pray that we may do that together, holding and supporting one another both in our sorrow and our joy.