Interlude: Holy Saturday

Much like Advent, Holy Saturday is representative of the situation in which we find ourselves vis-à-vis our salvation: we are waiting. But we don't wait as though nothing has happened. Indeed, what had to happen has happened, or at least hope bids us believe that it has. It seems to me that I have experienced this for myself, not just once or twice but any number of times and in ways both quiet and dramatic. Aren't these experiences subjective, maybe not able to withstand a withering critique? This is sometimes my fear, as I am sure it is the fear of other people of faith.

Much is made these days of the fact that it was the women among Jesus's disciples who did not run away or abandon him, either on the cross or after he was laid in the tomb. Of course, this overlooks the relative courage it took for Joseph of Arimathea and, if John's account is to be believed, Nicodemus, who was a member of the Sanhedrin, to ask Pilate for Jesus's body so they could mercifully bury it.

As many New Testament scholars and theologians have noted (I call to mind here Cynthia Crysdale's Embracing Travail: Retrieving the Cross Today), unlike Jesus's male followers, because they were counted as literally nobodies, his women disciples didn't face that same danger of themselves being arrested, humiliated, and possibly executed. I mention this only to balance the scales and not to diminish the steadfast faithfulness of the Lord's women disciples. Their faithfulness is demonstrated over and over again, particularly the fact it was the woman who materially supported Jesus and the twelve.

One inescapable fact, no matter which of the four accounts you read (keeping in mind that everything in Mark after the empty tomb is a later interpolation), women were the first witnesses of his resurrection. Indeed, Mary Magdalene is rightly identified as apostula apostulorum- this is highly significant! Getting back to Holy Saturday- the women were the first witnesses because not only did they go to see where Jesus was buried, they remained at his tomb. It seems fairly safe to assert that by hanging around and then coming back early the next morning they did not really know what to expect. It is this aspect that strikes me today: hanging around.

"When nothing we can do makes any difference and we are left standing around empty-handed and clueless," Eugene Peterson wrote, "we are ready for God to create." He continued- "When the conditions in which we live seem totally alien to life and salvation, we are reduced to waiting for God to do what only God can do, create." This is the experience of Holy Saturday. After the high drama of the Last Supper and the Via Crucis, we come to this quiet day unlike any other day of the year. Today almost nothing happens. It is a day of silence during which the memories of the events of the past few days echo in our minds and hearts. It can prompt the question: "Is it really real?" If so, "What does it all mean?"

One thing seems to clear, at least to me, the only the plausible theodicy (explanation of evil in light of the reality of God) is Jesus Christ crucified. Words, even poetic words, fall short of this great mystery. Like Lent itself, Holy Saturday is what Trevor Hudson has dubbed a "time-gift." We are given the quiet and calm of a Saturday, an interlude, to contemplate what we have seen and heard. Like the faithful women, today let us hang about not knowing what to expect and see what God will do at this time of worldwide pandemic.