WAITING FOR THE SON
Holy Saturday
15th April 2017
It's coming. But we have to wait. Jesus' home is not the grave. Nor is it the earth. It is a different dimension.
Saturday morning, walking round the woods, there was a special stillness. Not much traffic on the roads. Just a slight breeze. But above head height there was plenty of activity in the emerging leaf canopy of the trees as squirrels prepare their drays and birds their nests. Nature's rhythms echo God's. Home-making for all God's creatures - furry and feathery. And an anticipation of a different kind of home-making by God's Son.
Holy Saturday is the quiet day of waiting between two momentous events - the death and the rising of Jesus. It is difficult for us to wait not knowing what comes next, unlike the first traumatized followers of Jesus and his mother. They did not, could not, register that resurrection was round the corner.
For them, the grave was his home.
But we are able to make sense of the cross because of what does come next. Jesus true home-coming begins tomorrow with the rolling aside of the stone and his risen self. He is to be ever-alive, with the promise that this ever-alive nature is for us too. Our home is not the grave either, but life in all its fullness.
Just as the daffodils above wait for the sun, so we on Holy Saturday, wait for the Son with a mounting sense of eager hope and anticipation. Dare we believe it possible? Our home is never the grave but ever turned towards God.
Saturday morning, walking round the woods, there was a special stillness. Not much traffic on the roads. Just a slight breeze. But above head height there was plenty of activity in the emerging leaf canopy of the trees as squirrels prepare their drays and birds their nests. Nature's rhythms echo God's. Home-making for all God's creatures - furry and feathery. And an anticipation of a different kind of home-making by God's Son.
Holy Saturday is the quiet day of waiting between two momentous events - the death and the rising of Jesus. It is difficult for us to wait not knowing what comes next, unlike the first traumatized followers of Jesus and his mother. They did not, could not, register that resurrection was round the corner.
For them, the grave was his home.
But we are able to make sense of the cross because of what does come next. Jesus true home-coming begins tomorrow with the rolling aside of the stone and his risen self. He is to be ever-alive, with the promise that this ever-alive nature is for us too. Our home is not the grave either, but life in all its fullness.
Just as the daffodils above wait for the sun, so we on Holy Saturday, wait for the Son with a mounting sense of eager hope and anticipation. Dare we believe it possible? Our home is never the grave but ever turned towards God.
Waiting is the hardest part in any suffering. It is Mary whose suffering I wonder about. How did she cling to her faith? How must it have felt to watch him be put to death in such and painful manner, with no dignity whatsoever? I wonder how she prayed on Saturday. When everybody else was in a festive mood for the Passover festival, how did it feel to be the mother of an innocent man hung on a cross? Did Jesus help her to understand better than the apostles about his suffering and death?
ReplyDeleteMight she have recited these verses from Psalm 119?
Verses 81-83
My soul faints with longing for your salvation,
but I have put my hope in your word.
82
My eyes fail, looking for your promise;
I say, “When will you comfort me?”
83
Though I am like a wineskin in the smoke,
I do not forget your decrees.
Perhaps she spoke these words from the prophet Micah:
Micah 7:7-8
7
But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord,
I wait for God my Savior;
my God will hear me.
8
Do not gloat over me, my enemy!
Though I have fallen, I will rise.
Though I sit in darkness,
the Lord will be my light.
Holy Saturday is a gift to us: a gift of stillness and silence, a gift of space when nothing happens, a gift of time to prepare for the most momentous event of resurrection, a gift of healing when we can do nothing except wait for God to act and receive his life. Holy Saturday is one of the most important days of the year for it reminds us that all is grace.
ReplyDeleteOur waiting is not long for God's uncontainable life will soon burst open the tomb.
This year Holy Week has had greater depth and meaning than ever before, but it has been more intense than ever before and yesterday I felt empty and drained. I was glad that all that happened in church was an open space for prayer and later the flowers. I'd intended to be in church in the morning and pray, but ended up walking through the woods in the afternoon and just sitting on the Hemingway bench looking out over the meadow and feeling I had no prayers to pray.
ReplyDelete