Holy Saturday - the day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday - is perhaps the most forgotten day of Holy Week and yet it is the most significant for our lives. For most evangelicals Holy Week consists of Palm Sunday and Easter, for many of us it also includes Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. But the vast majority of us do not think about Holy Saturday. This day serves as a rest between Good Friday and Easter - for those of us that honor Good Friday (celebrate in front of Good Friday seems disrespectful because of what the day represents). For many more this day serves as a day of preparation for hectic-ness of Easter.
Holy Saturday represents the day Jesus lay (physically) dead. Some believe it to be when he descended to hell. That's what the Apostles Creed indicates, and while the exact meaning of inferos is unclear - it is still evident that from the earliest time believers held that Jesus descended to those who had gone before. Some people believe that this descending was in order to preach and proclaim himself to those who had gone before, some believe that in descending Jesus actually defeated Satan and took the keys of life and death at that point. Most of this is wild speculation - since we have no scriptural evidence to support any of it - and that is in large part why we have neglected this very important day. Most importantly it was a day of expectation and uncertainty.
We all love the celebration of Easter, it is a great day that celebrates one of the most significant events in human history. We proclaim the victory of Christ over death and take joy in the life we receive because of that victory. Yet in our own lives we live more in Holy Saturday than Easter Sunday. We are forgiven because of Christ's death and we live in that forgiveness. Yet we are not resurrected/perfected the way Jesus is/was on Easter Sunday. We live in expectation of the resurrection of our lives - seeing the evil that resides in us expunged and the holiness of God overtake us. We are forgiven - this is for certain! - but we are not perfected - as we will be. We live in expectation of the return of Christ, much like the Apostles on this day so many years ago. It's interesting that the Scriptures are silent on Holy Saturday - something definitely happened, but we're not told what. In the same way, the Scriptures are silent on so much of our lives, what will happen is uncertain. We live expecting something to happen that is (dare I say it) predestined to happen.
Let us take this day and use it as a day of expectation - not simply for Easter - but for the glorious return of Christ Jesus our Lord.
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