NOPHLIN: Holy Saturday, in between space and time

Holy Saturday is an in-between day. It is the day after Good Friday and the day before Easter, space in between time. What was is no longer and what will be is not yet. If Good Friday is the day of the loss, Holy Saturday is that day when the reality of the loss begins to set in. Holy Saturday is a difficult day. That in-between space where we can name our losses — a beloved one, a relationship, a dream, a reputation or identity, our health — but cannot yet name or know what will come next. It is the place of death, loss, emptiness, sorrow, separation. It is hell. If it feels like your life has been shaken to the core on Holy Saturday know this; it is not your life that is shaken, but the gates of hell being torn down. It is hell itself shaking with fear at the presence of Christ, trembling and regretting that it ever presumed to take captive the Author of Life, the Son of God!

“They took the body of Jesus and wrapped it with the spices in linen cloths, according to the burial custom of the Jews. Now there was a garden in the place where he was crucified, and in the garden, there was a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid. And so, because it was the Jewish Day of Preparation, and the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.” (John 19:40-42 NIV)

It is Holy Saturday and Jesus has finished the work. But blessed be the name of Jesus who came to take away the sins of the whole world. If He had not gotten up out of the grave, there would be no power of the blood of our Savior. Resurrection power, healing power, saving power, and deliverance power, in the blood of the Lamb! This is where the Lord’s steadfast love is on Holy Saturday, and this is where his never-ending mercies are today. This is where the Lord’s great faithfulness is on the morning after, Resurrection morning!