Holy Saturday, 2024 - Waiting

It was the Sabbath—the day after the Passover. Jesus had been crucified the day before. After receiving permission from Pilate, Joseph of Arimathea had hastily removed his body from the cross and placed it in a near-by tomb as the Sabbath was quickly approaching. There had been no time for anything other than putting the body in the tomb, wrapped in a linen cloth. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses had watched him bury Jesus’s dead body (Mark 15:42-47).

Saturday. The Sabbath. The day after Jesus had died.

The disciples huddled in fear behind locked doors (John 20:19). Would the religious leaders and the Roman soldiers who had killed Jesus come looking for them, his followers? Their fear was laced with their grief and guilt. After all, they had all fled, deserting him in Gethsemane when the temple guard arrested him. Now, he was gone—dead.

What was Peter thinking and feeling—Peter who had sworn that he would die for him; Peter who had denied that he knew him, not once but three different times? Was his grief overshadowed by guilt and remorse? Was he filled with self-hate and despair over what he had done?

What about the women? They had been at the cross. They had seen him die. They had seen where Joseph had buried his body. Now, on this Sabbath day, they sat with their grief and disbelief, making plans to wash and anoint his body as soon as the Sabbath was over. They waited, filling the time with their preparations.

I wonder if the detail of Roman soldiers ever gave any thought to the three men they had crucified the day before. Did the soldier who had won Jesus’s garment with a roll of the dice wonder about the man who had worn it? about what had happened that he was arrested and sentenced to die? about why he was called the king of the Jews?

Did the centurion—the officer in charge of the detail assigned with the gruesome task of crucifying Jesus—do any more reflecting on Jesus? Seeing the way Jesus died—not the way he had seen other men die by crucifixion—he had said, “Truly this man was a son of God” (Mark 15:40). Did he continue to reflect on how Jesus died? Did Jesus haunt his thinking in the days that followed?

Simon of Cyrene had been compelled by the Roman soldiers to carry Jesus’s cross for him as they led him to Golgotha (Mark 15:21). Did he get away from the cross as quickly as he could or did he hang around to watch the soldiers crucify Jesus? Did he know who Jesus was? Did he ever escape the memories of that condemned man, beaten to within an inch of his life, whose cross he carried?

Because it was the Sabbath, the religious leaders were likely involved in Sabbath observances. Did the events of the previous week invade their religious observances? Did their religious observances lead to any self-reflection, identifying the part they played in those events? Did their thoughts of Jesus—if they had any—stir any sense of remorse or guilt? Or did they simply feel immense relief that they would never have to deal with him again?  

We each deal with pain—death, loss, violence, trauma, failure, grief, regret—in different ways. The experiences of these people who were there on that Sabbath invite us to reflect on our own life experiences as we wait in anticipation of Easter morning.

This Holy Saturday, we reflect as we wait.