Black Saturday

Black Friday is a legendary day in American consciousness.  It is the rare person who doesn't have a reaction upon hearing the words, and virtually everyone knows what it means.  Whether you love it or hate it, most people have strong feelings about it, and it evokes some kind of a reaction.  But it is, after all, only another shopping day, not a day which changes the course of humankind forever.  It is important economically, on both a micro and macro scale, for shoppers and the economy, but eternity is not altered because of the events of the day.

Black Saturday, on the other hand, is barely acknowledged, even in the households of the faithful Christians who mourn on Good Friday and celebrate Easter.  How many of us really stop to consider the battle being waged while the body of our Savior lay cold in the grave?  Because that is where the real Promise of the Resurrection begins.  Jesus wasn't just resting in the grave, waiting for the Big Reveal on Easter Sunday.

Black Saturday is the time Jesus spent in the torture of the abyss away from God.  He was battling Satan on our behalf, for all time, and for all sinners, and the battle was not won until he rose from the grave.  He came to earth specifically for that purpose, and although, in his perfection, he did not deserve to die or spend that time in the hell of God's absence, his love for us propelled him forward into the torture and misery none of us will ever have to experience.

In Luke 24:7, we are reminded that Jesus himself predicted:

"The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again."  

It was that Black Saturday, that time Jesus spent away from his Father, that saved our souls for all time.  The victory we celebrate at Easter is rooted in the time Jesus lay dead in his tomb.

Today, Black Saturday, consider the sacrifice your Lord and Savior made for you.  Imagine his battle as he fought the darkness of the soul without the One who created each one of us.  The victory of the cross begins in the tomb, and our Savior fought a battle we could not have won on our own.

Tomorrow we will celebrate with songs and bright colors and Easter eggs and butterflies and joy and happy sermons about the victory of Jesus.  But in this week of the Passion, each day is important, and we shouldn't anticipate the ending, as if it is the only part that really matters.  Today, we should be thinking about the righteous battle being fought for our salvation.  Wishing you prayerful consideration as we wait, with Jesus, for the happy ending we know will come.

Tomorrow we will sing Alleluia.  Today we will rest on the promise of what is to come.