Uncertainty!
Now there’s a word you don’t often hear in evangelical circles, as is a reflection on Holy Saturday, or Easter Eve. We tend to love Good Friday and go mental about Easter Sunday but Easter Eve … what’s that? Surely it’s just the day in between the two big events where we can have a breather between two big sets of services!!
But what if we actually learned to live the scriptures each day. For the disciples, the great celebrations of feeding the 5,000 or preaching to the multitudes or of the great miracles were in the past. The triumphal entry probably felt like an eternity ago as well as very painful as the same crowed who had cheered Jesus, had also jeered Jesus and shouted ‘Crucify him!’ Perhaps Jesus would do one final amazing miracle by evading death. But no. That dark and gut-wrenching day had now passed and Jesus was … dead. Sometimes, as 21st century Christians, it is helpful for us to stop always reading the scriptures knowing the outcome. Yes, ‘Sunday’s a-coming!’ but for the disciples at this moment, they don’t know that. Yes, they may have remembered Jesus’ words about being raised but would they have known what that actually meant. At this moment they are sitting behind locked doors in despair trying to deal with … uncertainty. And if we, as Spirit-filled Bible-believing Christians rush too quickly from Good Friday to Easter Day, we don’t learning the lessons of handling uncertainty we can gain from this day and understand what it means to ‘wait in hope’ as our brothers and sisters in the historic churches would say.
Tim Dakin, the Bishop of Winchester, has written this about Holy Saturday:
“As followers of Jesus, we have come to this most disturbing point when the brutal reality of Jesus’ death confronts us in the undeniable reality of the cold dead body before us. We are now part of the drama: we do not stand outside it, or above it. The great and wonderful resolution of the resurrection is yet to happen – we have yet to see that ‘epic’ perspective. Holy Saturday disciplines us to stay in the story as participants. Staying with Jesus puts us alongside many of our fellow citizens who are mourning their loved ones. We mourn with those who mourn. We bring before God our deepest fears and lost hopes. We long for new life and pray that, even in our weakness, we might also offer loving kindness to others.”
At this time of uncertainty for our communities, nation and world, where we do not really know what is going to happen next and we are still dealing with the grief, despair and sense of loss of freedom, normality and sadly for too many of loved ones, we need to find a way of digging deep into our faith to find that Jesus is with us as we wait in hope but also in uncertainty. Despite the various and different prophetic promises individuals (who are well meaning) try to give us, we don’t know what the future holds. But in that rather trite statement, we have to keep believing that whilst we may not know what the future holds but we do know who holds our future.
Holy Saturday is about preparing our hearts for what is to come. For the women mentioned Luke 23:55, they were preparing spices and ointment to anoint Jesus’ body. For us it is preparing our hearts for whatever God may have for us next; for whatever the future holds. Of course, we now know that Resurrection is coming but in our daily lives, struggles, illnesses, and uncertainty we don’t know when resurrection is coming. We have no idea how long we are going to be in lockdown or uncertainty. We may feel despair and hopelessness but God had promised his people many hundreds of years before that first Holy Saturday that he would “never leave you nor forsake you” (Deuteronomy 31:6 & 8) a truth that Jesus, himself, repeated after his resurrection in the final words that Matthew records in his gospel … “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Whatever happens next in our lives, we wait in hope, knowing that Jesus is with us in our despair (Good Friday), our uncertainty (Holy Saturday) and our joy (Easter Day). Do not lose hope; do not give in to despair. We may not have the answers but we do know that Sunday is coming.
May you know the peace of God which surpasses all understanding and may it guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus.