Holy Saturday: A Day for the Faithless & Anxious

The following post is from Casey Olsen’s blog In Case You Were Wondering and is used with permission.

Holy Saturday is an easily overlooked day on a powerful weekend for Christians around the globe. To an extent, it is understandable. When we examine Scripture, besides seeing that some women went home to rest for the Sabbath[1], we do not get a clear vision of what the mood was like that next morning when the followers of Jesus woke up to the reality that their Messiah was gone.

It was not a bad dream. Jesus was actually gone.

As I have processed this recently, I have had this thought: I bet Saturday was a tougher day for the followers of Jesus than Friday was. Hang with me, here.

Loss is a difficult thing to process at nearly any level. The event itself is obviously difficult, but that next day of waking up to the reality of it actually being gone and you having to process life moving forward without it can be crippling.

Processing loss is very difficult because there are stages of grief and recovery that one must go through to find healing. With the Sabbath following Christ’s crucifixion, the disciples had no choice but to go home and dwell in the sadness of what had just occurred. They could not go work their emotions out or attempt to find some distraction, they had to go rest – and hurt a lot.

The pain of what they had all experienced was so extreme that it clouded everything that Jesus had spoken about His resurrection.[2] Three times, Jesus had told His disciples that He would be killed and would rise again. But they couldn’t see it. They couldn’t believe it. To the disciples, the pain of their loss blinded their ability to believe that their Savior was coming back to them.

From our perspective, it is easy to see the disciples as faithless and short sided. Jesus straight up predicted everything that had happened up to that point, and they couldn’t believe He was coming back as He also predicted He would.

But oh, how prone am I to do the same. What’s even worse about me is that I am on the other side of His resurrection! I believe that He has conquered death, Satan, and sin, and that His Kingdom is slowly being revealed to earth and one day, death, Satan, and sin will be completely removed from the earth.

Yet, the moment I feel like Jesus has disappeared, I start to worry like He isn’t coming back. I start to worry and wonder like He isn’t sovereign. When trials start to remove my eyes from His face, my foundation is rocked and I am left in doubt and fear.

The same Jesus that healed the sick, raised the dead, fed the thousands, and calmed the storm, was the same One that the disciples lost faith in when He suddenly appeared defeated.

The same Jesus that healed my depression, that healed my mother of stage 3 colon cancer, restored my family in many ways after divorce, and has never failed to provide every bit of what I need when I need it, is the One that I am quick to doubt and let fear override my mind.

This Holy Saturday, I wish to gaze upon the truth of my King Jesus.

I will be anxious for nothing. I will rely on His truth that is His grace and His mercy. His truth that is His sovereignty and His sufficiency. The truth that is His faithfulness to me and His love for me.

We cannot let our trials get so big in our eyes that we lose sight of our King who has risen from the grave. It is no easy task, as the ones who walked with Him doubted that He would even do it. But as we gaze upon the truth of our Jesus, through faith, we can find rest and peace through Him.

Today, I want to fix my eyes on my Jesus.

Because today, He is on the throne.

And today, He is in control.

“Remember how He told you while He was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified, and on the third day be raised again.’ Then they remembered His words.” Luke 24:6-7

[1] ESV, [Crossway: Wheaton, IL, 2001], Luke 23:56

[2] ESV, [Crossway: Wheaton, IL, 2001], Luke 18:33