In the Bible, the Saturday of Holy Week – our Easter Saturday – is a moment of stillness between two days of the worst and the best kind of activity. Behind it lies the sorrow, pain and shattered hopes of Good Friday with the crucifixion and burial of Jesus, and ahead lies the joyful, astonished action of Easter Sunday as the impact of the resurrection spreads.
Between these two eventful days comes this uneventful one. Easter Saturday is a day when the clocks of heaven stopped and all history catches its breath. In the best sense, Easter Saturday is a pregnant pause: the Old Covenant has been fulfilled at the cross; the New Covenant is hours away from its birth at the resurrection.
The Bible only mentions two things happening on that Saturday and they form a striking contrast.
The first is recorded in Matthew 27:62-66 (NIV):
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.
It’s an unhappy, troubled group of individuals.
First, we see fearful anticipation. By all human logic this powerful leadership should be able to relax. They have achieved all they wanted. Jesus, the man who troubled their consciences and threatened their control, has been publicly executed in the most brutal and shameful way. Unarguably dead and buried, that matter is over. But they are nagged by the feeling that it isn’t. They want a Roman guard around where Jesus is buried and offer the rather ridiculous argument that a robbed tomb might convince people of his resurrection. Did they actually want more official proof that Jesus’ death was approved by Rome and a discouragement of any attempt to make the tomb a shrine? Perhaps. But here’s the thing about Jesus – he won’t stay dead. Once we encounter Jesus, even if we reject him, he becomes the man you can’t forget. He troubles the mind and disturbs the conscience of even the strongest opponent. To reject the presence of Jesus is to be troubled by his absence. The only sure way to avoid that sense of Jesus looking over our shoulder, is in fact to turn to him and accept him as Lord.
Second, I see frantic activity. This may be a solemn day of rest, but not for these men. Troubled by Jesus, they are driven to bend, if not break, every rule of their faith by meeting with the Roman governor on a Sabbath. These are plotting, scheming, restless men. They are fulfilling to the letter God’s ancient wisdom.
Many would identify with this restlessness: the sense that we must act, must go somewhere, must do something. Without Christ to hold things together, lives inevitably slide into confused and chaotic activity.
Third, I see futile achievement. The leadership hope the governor will grant them a Roman guard whose authority and ruthlessness will deter all visitors. The most likely interpretation of the text is that this plea fell on deaf ears. Pilate, having been out-manoeuvred over the crucifixion, is in no mood to have anything more to do with them. He refuses their request, telling them to use their own temple guard to protect the tomb.
(My main reason is that after the resurrection the guards report to the chief priests, not to Pilate. I also don’t see Rome delegating the use of soldiers to Jewish authorities who they obviously mistrusted. Furthermore, the idea that Roman guards could get away with saying, ‘We fell asleep’ (see Matthew 28:13), is most improbable. Roman military principles were that they would have been court martialled and probably executed.)
And in one of those ironies, the very presence of their guard ends up acting as evidence that the empty tomb is not due to human intervention but divine action. In their futile attempt to end the movement associated with Jesus, we see a fulfilment of Psalm 2, which opens with, ‘Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain?’ (NIV) and goes on to expand on how God mocks all attempts to dethrone his anointed Son. Again there are lessons for us: to stand or act against God and his Messiah is utterly futile. Easter is about God’s triumph. We must join it or accept utter defeat.
The second biblical mention of ‘Easter Saturday’ is recounted by Luke. He says of the women who had followed Jesus and watched him being buried that they ‘went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment’ (Luke 23:56 NIV). Here, although painted in the darkest of tones, is a truly uplifting picture. A group of women to whom the very worst has happened, whose hopes have been dashed by the horror of the crucifixion, continue in their faith by resting on the Sabbath, as ordered by their faith. We can only imagine their thoughts and prayers but in the midst of the cruellest, saddest chaos, they somehow rested and trusted in God. And, of course, the next day their sorrow was turned into joy.
Today, with Jesus’ resurrection behind us and the Second Coming ahead, we also live in a pause. These two groups with their contrasts of restlessness and rest, faithlessness and faith, failure and fulfilment, speak to us today. With which do we identify? Are we those who have rejected Christ and have our existence marked by fearful anticipation, frantic activity and futile achievement? Even if we are in some way ‘religious’, would we prefer to see Jesus safely buried in the ground rather than uncomfortably alive in the world and in our lives? Or are we those like the women who, despite all discouragements, cling on to God in faith and hope? Remember, one day, perhaps sooner than we think, the pause in history we know will be ended. The Lord Jesus will return in glory! Those who have stood against him will find their worst fears are realised, and those who have stood for him will find their wildest hopes are fulfilled. Let’s be ready!
