During this season, which many Christians call “Holy Week,” I am perversely drawn to Saturday. Perhaps it is because the Saturday between “Good” Friday and Resurrection Day is, for others a sort of relief. For them it is a day off from the relentless grieving and guilt associated with Lent—at least for those who take the Roman faith seriously. For others “Holy Saturday” becomes business as usual or, at best, the last day to buy and sell before Easter.
I am drawn to Saturday because it is the day between suffering and glory; between accomplishment and vindication. Today is an awkward in-between day that is neither fully this nor fully that. On Friday the attention is on the stations of the cross. On Sunday the attention is, as it ought to be, on the resurrected Savior. On Saturday, however, the attention of the church, such as it is, falls upon the tomb.
The Heidelberg Catechism has one question devoted to this aspect of our Lord’s humiliation:
41. Why was He “buried”?
To show thereby that He was really dead
The early versions of the Creed alternated between “sepultus” (buried) and “descendit” (he descended) as synonyms. Eventually, as the doctrine of Jesus’ descent to the place of the dead (ad inferna) or to the dead ones (ad inferos) the “descendit” took on a life of its own and the the “sepultus” was neglected.
The burial of our Lord was another part of his ignominy. Foxes have holes, birds have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere even to be buried. So Joseph of Arimathea provided a tomb fit for a king. While Jesus was entombed he was silent. Finished were the cries and taunts of the cross but it was not yet time for the triumphal declaration: “He is risen.”
Today is a day of silence, and yet the work of salvation, of deliverance from the curse and its effects, continues. We can see the work of salvation on the cross and we see it in the empty tomb, but neither of those means anything without the three days in the belly of the whale, in the womb of death, from which he must emerge.
Today, God is, as it were, silent but he is not asleep. The tomb is ugly, but it is also sanctus. Today is the in-between time. The first act is finished but the curtain, though torn, is not closed.
RESOURCES
- Subscribe To The Heidelblog!
- The Heidelblog Resource Page
- Heidelmedia Resources
- The Ecumenical Creeds
- The Reformed Confessions
- The Heidelberg Catechism
- Recovering the Reformed Confession (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2008)
- Why I Am A Christian
- What Must A Christian Believe?
- Heidelblog Contributors
- Holy Saturday In Light Of Psalm 62
- Support Heidelmedia: use the donate button or send a check to:
Heidelberg Reformation Association
1637 E. Valley Parkway #391
Escondido CA 92027
USA
The HRA is a 501(
R. Scott Clark
R.Scott Clark is the President of the Heidelberg Reformation Association, the author and editor of, and contributor to several books and the author of many articles. He has taught church history and historical theology since 1997 at Westminster Seminary California. He has also taught at Wheaton College, Reformed Theological Seminary, and Concordia University. He has hosted the Heidelblog since 2007.
More by R. Scott Clark ›
This is simply a wonderful meditation. I remember reading 4 years ago, and am thankful you republished it for today. Both solemn and re-assuring all at once, that all is well in the silence of this day.
I meant 6 years ago. I can’t math.
Thank you for this powerful post, Scott. What a blessing!
I think my all-time favorite HB post each year (and you thought I never read it!)
Thanks Eric and to all for the encouragement.
THANK YOU
Great post. Do you think there’s any significance to the fact that Christ was in this in-between, resting state on the Sabbath?
Thanks Nick. Yes, I agree with JR, that Jesus rested, as it were, and thus fulfilled the old covenant Sabbath and inaugurated the new creation and the Christian Sabbath in his resurrection.