The Burial Colored
Reflect on these words about the burial of King Jesus —
That which the thrust of the spear ascertained as a fact,
the burial colored and characterized,
and thus made public.
Zechariah 12:10, The Message
“Next I’ll deal with the family of David and those who live in Jerusalem. I’ll pour a spirit of grace and prayer over them. They’ll then be able to recognize me as the One they so grievously wounded — that piercing spear-thrust!
And they’ll weep — oh, how they’ll weep!
Deep mourning as of a parent grieving the loss of the firstborn child.
N.T. Wright
Holy Saturday gives us a particular kind of space, if we are prepared to take it amid what is often a busy weekend. Holy Saturday offers at least a small moment in which the terrible, blinding truth of Good Friday can sink down into our bones and bloodstream and enable us to make it our own, rather than blundering on as though it hadn’t quite happened. Holy Saturday can be the moment, if we will let it, when the warm clay of our lives, which has been stamped with the cross on Good Friday, sets firm, so that we become people of the cross, people who see the world in the light of the cross, people who, like Paul, have been crucified with the Messiah, so that the life they now live is not their own but his. Like Joseph, we have to take our courage in both hands if we are to do so. But this is the only way to go. We cannot be Easter people if we are not first Good Friday people and then Holy Saturday people. Don’t expect even a still, small voice. Stay still yourself, and let the quietness and darkness of the day be your only companions.
