{"id":72220,"date":"2025-04-19T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-19T04:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/?p=72220"},"modified":"2025-04-07T14:45:46","modified_gmt":"2025-04-07T18:45:46","slug":"holy-saturday-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/holy-saturday-7\/","title":{"rendered":"Holy Saturday"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Scripture Reading: Matthew 27:62-66, Luke 23:54-56, Psalm 130:5-8<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the drama of Holy Week, Saturday is a sacred pause between the sorrow of Good Friday and the triumph of Resurrection Sunday. I spent most of my life skipping right over this day, glossing over it. After all, don\u2019t we call Good Friday good because Sunday\u2019s coming? But as I\u2019ve gotten older and experienced more waiting seasons, grief, and dark nights, Holy Saturday has become more precious. In the darkness, I find a solemn companion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friday is despair and Sunday is joy. But Saturday is a day for waiting, as the psalmist says, \u201cmore than watchmen for the morning\u201d (Psalm 130:6). After the final words, the final breath, and the earth-quaking enormity of Jesus\u2019s death, His followers were scattered and heartbroken. Even in the grim aftermath, there were still moments of courage, tenderness, and grace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joseph, a rich man from Arimathea and disciple of Jesus, wouldn\u2019t let Jesus be dishonored any further. He requested Jesus\u2019s body for a proper burial. As a member of the Sanhedrin, aligning himself with Jesus in such a public way was a huge risk to his reputation, but that didn\u2019t matter to him. Instead of leaving Jesus to a dishonorable criminals\u2019 burial, Joseph made room in his own family tomb. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many disciples went into hiding, but the women who loved Jesus followed Him all the way to His burial site. They \u201cobserved the tomb and how his body was placed\u201d so they could return after the Sabbath and properly lay His body to rest (Luke 23:55). Their generosity is noticeable to me here. While the empire would treat Jesus as a criminal, His friends offered as close to a kingly funeral as they could manage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, this level of devotion raised some fear from the religious leaders who called for Jesus\u2019s crucifixion in the first place. Jesus had said He\u2019d rise again in three days, hadn\u2019t He? The leaders went to Pilate\u2014on the Sabbath, no less!\u2014and raised their anxieties. What if it was all a conspiracy to keep the deception going? What if his followers actually plotted to \u201csteal him, and tell the people, \u2018He has been raised from the dead\u2019\u201d (Matthew 27:64)? I imagine Pilate was ready to be done with the whole deal when he told them to go and make the tomb as secure as they could. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A tomb that can\u2019t be opened from the inside. A seal on the door and guards at the ready. There\u2019s a finality to this scene that deserves a moment of lingering. Jesus was buried, and all truly felt finished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps you have buried something too\u2014dreams, desires, maybe even hope itself. How does it feel to lock them away in the dark? How does it feel to wait? The psalmist also knew this feeling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Put your hope in the LORD.<\/em>
For there is faithful love with the LORD,<\/em>
and with him is redemption in abundance. <\/em>
\u2014Psalm 130:7<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

May you know this hope today. May you find a glimpse of redemption in your waiting, for every good thing that\u2019s been buried could still live again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Written by Jen Yokel<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scripture Reading: Matthew 27:62-66, Luke 23:54-56, Psalm 130:5-8 In the drama of Holy Week, Saturday is a sacred pause between the sorrow of Good Friday and the triumph of Resurrection Sunday. I spent most of my life skipping right over this day, glossing over it. After all, don\u2019t we call Good Friday good because Sunday\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":71925,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[296],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lent2025"],"acf":{"hero_background_image":false,"related_plans":[71943],"weekly_truth":false,"grace_day":false,"share_text":"#SheReadsTruth","devotional_text":"HOLY SATURDAY<\/b>

\r\nby Jen Yokel<\/i>

\r\n

In the drama of Holy Week, Saturday is a sacred pause between the sorrow of Good Friday and the triumph of Resurrection Sunday. I spent most of my life skipping right over this day, glossing over it. After all, don\u2019t we call Good Friday good because Sunday\u2019s coming? But as I\u2019ve gotten older and experienced more waiting seasons, grief, and dark nights, Holy Saturday has become more precious. In the darkness, I find a solemn companion.<\/p>
\r\n

Friday is despair and Sunday is joy. But Saturday is a day for waiting, as the psalmist says, \u201cmore than watchmen for the morning\u201d (Psalm 130:6). After the final words, the final breath, and the earth-quaking enormity of Jesus\u2019s death, His followers were scattered and heartbroken. Even in the grim aftermath, there were still moments of courage, tenderness, and grace.<\/p>
\r\n

Joseph, a rich man from Arimathea and disciple of Jesus, wouldn\u2019t let Jesus be dishonored any further. He requested Jesus\u2019s body for a proper burial. As a member of the Sanhedrin, aligning himself with Jesus in such a public way was a huge risk to his reputation, but that didn\u2019t matter to him. Instead of leaving Jesus to a dishonorable criminals\u2019 burial, Joseph made room in his own family tomb.<\/p>
\r\n

Many disciples went into hiding, but the women who loved Jesus followed Him all the way to His burial site. They \u201cobserved the tomb and how his body was placed\u201d so they could return after the Sabbath and properly lay His body to rest (Luke 23:55). Their generosity is noticeable to me here. While the empire would treat Jesus as a criminal, His friends offered as close to a kingly funeral as they could manage.<\/p>
\r\n

Of course, this level of devotion raised some fear from the religious leaders who called for Jesus\u2019s crucifixion in the first place. Jesus had said He\u2019d rise again in three days, hadn\u2019t He? The leaders went to Pilate\u2014on the Sabbath, no less!\u2014and raised their anxieties. What if it was all a conspiracy to keep the deception going? What if his followers actually plotted to \u201csteal him, and tell the people, \u2018He has been raised from the dead\u2019\u201d (Matthew 27:64)? I imagine Pilate was ready to be done with the whole deal when he told them to go and make the tomb as secure as they could.<\/p>
\r\n

A tomb that can\u2019t be opened from the inside. A seal on the door and guards at the ready. There\u2019s a finality to this scene that deserves a moment of lingering. Jesus was buried, and all truly felt finished.<\/p>
\r\n

Perhaps you have buried something too\u2014dreams, desires, maybe even hope itself. How does it feel to lock them away in the dark? How does it feel to wait? The psalmist also knew this feeling.<\/p>
\r\n

Put your hope in the LORD.<\/em>
For there is faithful love with the LORD,<\/em>
and with him is redemption in abundance.\u00a0<\/em>
\u2014Psalm 130:7<\/em><\/p>
\r\n

May you know this hope today. May you find a glimpse of redemption in your waiting, for every good thing that\u2019s been buried could still live again.<\/p>","share_image_height":"640","day_number":"48","scripture":"Matthew 27:62-66, Luke 23:54-56, Psalm 130:5-8","available":true,"ad_banner_name":"","ad_banner_image":false,"ad_banner_url":"","songs":"","key_verse":"","key_verse_reference":"","background_image":false,"background_color":"#FBF7F3","scripture_references":false,"share_image":false,"author_name":"","author_bio":"","guest_social_media":false,"show_ad":true,"ad_override":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/70"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}