Thoughts from St. Andrew's Episcopal Church • Birmingham, AL

Holy Saturday • April 20, 2019

Old Testament: Job 14:1-14 or Lamentations 3:1-9, 19-24
Psalm 31:1-4, 15-16
Epistle: 1 Peter 4:1-8
Gospel: Matthew 27:57-66 or John 19:38-42
“Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb.” Matthew 27:61
Faithful to the bitter end, or what they thought at this moment was the bitter end, the Marys sat vigil with the buried Jesus. I am imagining what the next day must have been like for them, for all the apostles. It was their Sabbath, but on that Sabbath day, it was also the day after their dear friend and teacher had been put to death.
I can still remember that indescribable feeling of emptiness and loss when upon awakening that first morning after someone I loved deeply has died and the awareness that they are gone comes into consciousness. It is the feeling of fresh raw grief. Whatever drama may have accompanied the previous day, the day of dying, this day is faced in those first moments of awakening utterly alone.
Our Holy Saturday invites us to sit in this tension of grief with the Marys while at the same time knowing that Easter is coming. It’s hard to do. The brief and stark Holy Saturday liturgy is barely over when the congregants, many of whom are Altar and Flower Guild, spring into action getting everything ready for a beautiful and joyous celebration of the resurrection.
But if we listen to Jesus teaching with his friends Mary and Martha, Jesus wants us to not be so distracted by the many things to do that we are not listening to him. Jesus’s teaching is that God’s way is the way of love. His death was the result of the world’s way of power that feared this way of love would take away power and privilege. And that is true: love, the true love of God, is the antithesis of power and privilege. 
The tension of Holy Saturday is that of holding in our hearts, minds, and soul that Jesus suffered a terrible death precisely because the love he preached threatened those with the power to silence him by putting him to death. And also knowing that the true power of God, which is eternal, allowed Jesus the Christ to overcome death. Godself came as a human being to teach how to love every human being and all creation. The world refused to embrace this radical love, so Jesus chose to allow his suffering and death to demonstrate just how radical this love is. This is salvation.

The Reverend Deacon Gerri Aston