Day 40—Holy Saturday, April 4

Matthew 27: 62-66

The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, “Sir, we remember what that impostor said while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ Therefore command the tomb to be made secure until the third day; otherwise, his disciples may go and steal him away and tell the people, ‘He has been raised from the dead,’ and the last deception would be worse than the first.” Pilate said to them, “You have a guard of soldiers; go, make it as secure as you can.” So they went with the guard and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone.

We call this day Holy Saturday. It is a day in-between, the time after the awful and soul-crushing grief of Good Friday, but a day before the surprise and triumph of Easter. It is a time for sitting still. Numb might be the way to describe it.

But in Matthew’s story, Holy Saturday is a day of anxious activity. The allegiance of the Pharisees and chief priests alongside Rome and Pontius Pilate continues. They fret in fear of what the “imposter” might still have planned for them. They fear a magic trick- the disciples will come and steal the body, then point to the empty tomb and shout, “Ta Da!”

It leads you to wonder if something in them doubts their own decision. Something in them recognizes a power that was in Jesus that they may have failed to eliminate. They must do whatever necessary to cover their tracks.

They hire additional security. They reinforce the tomb. Joseph of Arimathea had previously put the stone in front of the tomb’s entrance, but these men “seal” it. They would have used wax to seal the edges so that you would have to break the seal in order to move the stone. No one unauthorized was getting to the body.

Might there be an insight here? Those who wield great power do so precariously. They must exercise constant vigilance to ensure that nothing disrupts their order and security. They fall prey to the temptation that more guards, better security systems, and even protection against the wildest conspiracies becomes necessary. Power necessitates control and control quickly leads to paranoia.

This is where we leave Holy Saturday, the disciples hiding in fear alongside the powerful, beefing up their armaments, also in fear. Everyone believes simultaneously that the end has come and that the end has yet to be.

May we remember on this day that the death of Jesus carries power. His body in the tomb, even dead, points to the reign of God over all the powers of the earth. In fact, his dead body is the indictment on the lack of power the rulers of the world possess. Something beyond even the power of death stirs in the earth, an ancient power that no army or leader or force can thwart, the power of Almighty God.

Prayer: We sit this day, O God, in the stillness.

We abide in our grief even as we wish to hope for a better day.

Remind us that in your body, even your dead body, there is a power at work.

You are healing the world and us.

You are transforming the locus of authority and possibility.

You are birthing the New Creation.

As we sit in the dark today, may we learn to trust in you.

Amen.

-The Rev. Andrew C. Whaley