Lent #37: The Great Sabbath.

On the Sabbath they rested.

(Luke 23:56)

That’s all that’s said of this Saturday between Jesus’ death and resurrection: “They rested.” Friday ends with Joseph of Arimathea, a “rich and prominent” man; securing the dead body of Jesus. With the help of Nicodemus and the women who remained faithful to the end, they lug the dead body of Jesus down from the cross, cover his shame with linen cloth, and provide a noble burial in a freshly hewn tomb with a stone entrance and all. After that, “they rest.” That’s the Great Sabbath Rest, when creation itself rest awaiting God’s decision. Nothing more from the human side can be done.  

It’s the day Jesus lies “dead and buried” (1Cor 15:3-4). Scripture, along with the creeds, stress the “buried” part: “Was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead (hades)” (Apostle’s Creed). It is real death and real burial. Jesus didn’t pretend. He participated fully in the terror of death and all its deadness. As the church fathers insisted, whatever part of humanity the Son of God has not assumed, has not been healed, or saved, or salvaged. Incarnation involves the whole of humanity, even the deadness of death; that humanity might be healed/saved/salvaged from death itself.

Easter morning will decide. For now, we rest and wait for God to do what only God can do.