A series of short reflections for Easter

The Great Sabbath

Hannah Rich is a researcher at Theos.

Holy Saturday, it can sometimes seem, is a day of nothingness. It has none of the doom-laden ritual of the days leading up to it nor the glory of the Sunday that comes — — after it, just silence, an empty cross and a closed grave. It’s the pause at the top of a deep breath. In the Eastern Orthodox tradition, it is known as the Great Sabbath, because it is the day when Jesus rested in the tomb.

The scenario we find ourselves in right now feels a bit like one long Holy Saturday. None of the routine we used to know and only a scant expectation of how good life might be again afterwards. There will be joy to come in the morning when this is over, mingled with the grief of what has been lost. We don’t know for sure though when the waiting will end, apart from the hope that lockdown won’t last longer than three months. Similarly, although Jesus had repeatedly hinted that he would rise in three days, Saturday held none of that certainty for the disciples left behind.

And yet, Saturday wasn’t wasted. The resurrection is what it is not only because of the fact of the crucifixion, but because of the time Jesus lay dead. Life emerging from the waiting. As the whole world presses pause and finds itself in an enforced and extended Great Sabbath, life is being saved through our waiting too.

Image credit: Photo by Dylan McLeod on Unsplash