The Silence of Saturday

 “The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, “Sir, we remember how that impostor said, while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise.’ Therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’ and the last fraud will 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 and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭27:62-66‬ ‭ESV‬‬

These five verses from one Gospel writer are the only recorded verses in the Bible referencing Saturday’s events between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday. A secret meeting between Pilate and the religious leaders to create a fabricated alibi and to secure the tomb of a dead man.  Does that seem interesting to you?  The silence of Saturday.  No word from Mark, Luke or John. No word from any of the disciples. No word from God. Only the brief words of those plotting a plan in case the “imposter’s” plan actually came to fruition.  It almost seems like they believed more in the possibility of Jesus coming back to life than those who walked and talked with him every day for over three years. Why?  I think they planned because they actually feared that He would rise again. Why the silence of everyone else?  Maybe the God-Man’s supporters were afraid His death was permanent. Plus, Saturday was Sabbath. It was designed to be silent and solemn. Were they just resting for the Sabbath or resting from their running in fear for their lives. The silence of Saturday. Is this silence golden or troubling?  Does it add fear or precipitate the hope of Sunday?  Does it leave you thinking or at a loss for words?  Sometimes silence is golden. Other times, it’s deafening. And this, for me, is such a time. Loud, overwhelming silence. Hard to explain but never without purpose.  It’s Saturday. It’s the Sabbath. Jesus is still dead. God is still silent. But all silence must come to an end. And Sunday is coming with noise much louder than Saturday’s deafening silence. It won’t be long now. 

What’s Good about Good Friday?

 

The Good Friday date is one of the oldest Christian holidays, with some sources saying that it has been observed since 100 CE. It was associated with fasting during the early years of its observance and was associated with the crucifixion around the fourth century CE.

But why is it good?  What makes it good?  Why do we call it Good Friday?  It’s a day that celebrates death. It’s the day we remember the most vial and brutal execution in the history of mankind. How can that be good?  Good should represent what is moral and right. Good should look happy and clean and be the best life has to offer.  But Good Friday represents death, arguably the most brutal and ugly and graphic scene of death ever painted by the most vial of human hands.  I ask again, How can that be good?  

Well - let’s look at the Good Friday players to find some answers to this perplexity. 

The Pharisees, the Saducees, the Essenes and others designated religious leaders were the local establishment. They represented what organized religion looked like, but they did it with hatred and malice in their hearts. It was hatred that they considered good. For them, this was a Good Friday. The Ultimate Representative of Good - God, the God-Man, was dead; and that was good for them. 

The disciples, save for the Apostle John and Judas, had disappeared. They were gone. Disappeared into the darkness. All that they had seen and heard of Good was dead, and at best they were confused. At worst, hopeless.  

The crowd was crazy. Hysteria reigned that Good Friday morning. Crucify Him, Crucify Him they screamed. Insults. Mockery. Blasphemy. Cursing.  Hatred.  Taunting. All hurled at the God-Man. Good?  In their eyes, it was good. The death of Good, the Son of God, was complete. And that hatred was to them, very good. 

And then there was the Man, Jesus. The God-Man. The Hope for all creation. Innocence slain. He was dead. But why?  What makes it good that we would call the most heinous execution in the history of the world good?  What makes it good is the bigger picture, the bigger picture that Good could be accurately portrayed as beautiful in death - the death of perfection. Perfection is what was required for sin’s restitution and mankind’s salvation to be made and available.  Scripture says it this way:  “God made Him (Jesus) who knew no sin to become our sin so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21). In other words, the Son became sin so the sinner could be saved.  And He did it for you...and me.  And He did it to make the ugliest, cruelest, most vile and heinous crime (and Friday) in human history good.  And so it is Good Friday.  Thank God - for without Friday, Sunday is not possible.