HOLY WEEK – BLACK SATURDAY
Holy Week – Black Saturday
He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all- how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” -Romans 8:32
Jesus’ body rested in the tomb on Holy Saturday; it was a rich man’s tomb, fulfilling the prophecy (Isaiah 53:9)
Preparations were made for Jesus’ body and placement in the tomb until 6pm, when preparations for the Sabbath began. “The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.” –Luke 23:55-56
There are lots of opinions about where Jesus’s soul was between His death on the cross and His glorious resurrection. There are passages in the epistles that speak about it, but that’s a study for another time.
The gospels don’t really say much about it, but they do say this:
Luke 23:43 and Jesus said unto him, verily I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in paradise.
This paradise is referred to in (Revelation 2:7) as “the paradise of God”.
“Holy Week is relatively silent on Black Saturday. The tomb has been sealed, the guards stand watch, the disciples are hiding in confusion and fear. The Savior has surrendered all to save his people from their sin. And that even includes the ones who cried “let His blood be on us and our children.” (Matthew 27:25)
What more condemning words could there possibly be? Still that is, in effect, what is said every time a person rejects and refuses to believe in The Christ. It happens every day.
But it’s interesting how the meaning of words and phrases can change when the context changes. As true believers, we can rejoice and shout, “let His blood be on us!” We say it with a different meaning.
Not defiantly as the crowds that crucified him, but desperately because we depend only on his sacrifice.
“Jesus, let your blood be on us. Let it cover us. Let the blood that flows – from your head, your hands, your feet, from your side, from your stripes – wash over us and cleanse us from all of our iniquity”.
We proclaim Jesus’s death. We rejoice in his death, not because we believe he was a fraud or a lunatic, but because it is by his death, by his wounds, by his blood that we are healed.
What a wonderous thing this is!
Romans 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Amen, and Amen.
But the best news is still to come
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