Saturday is the pause between the dark pain of Good Friday and the bright joy of the resurrection. Hazy shadows stand between Friday and Sunday, between night and morning, between despair and comfort. Saturday may be the most overlooked devotional opportunity of Holy Week, possibly because it is the unrealized in-between.

Sometime during the in-between, when no one is there to see, Jesus rises from the dead. Uneventfully, quietly, behind the gray dawn fog, he walks out of that sealed tomb. He takes a new breath of life, eternal life, yet silently when no one is watching. Mary doesn’t quite understand. The disciples don’t know what to think. But, understanding and belief have nothing to do with this simple fact. Jesus has risen. He has done what he said.

Today on Holy Saturday, we watch for the resurrection of the dead. We wait for Jesus to claim victory over death in the morning. We hold our breath for that long-awaited Easter morning. But this day is not only about this second day trapped in a tomb. We routinely live in a gray in-between, a daily haze between a sinful dark world and the eternal light of the new creation. Yet even if we don’t understand it all, even if we don’t believe it all, one solid truth remains. Christ has risen! He has done it for us.

DEVOTION IDEAS:

Bring a single candle into the middle of your devotion to signify that Christ is risen. Especially if you brought the light out yesterday on Good Friday, this is a beautiful visual that Christ has risen from the dead!

READ Matthew 27:57-66, John 20:1-10

READ some favorite great stories of God’s salvation (for example: creation, the flood, crossing the Red Sea)

Listen to Family Style Theology “Holy Saturday and Vigil”

Check out activities and crafts on Pinterest

Sing “Christ Has Arisen, Alleluia” (LSB #466)

Pray Matins Responsory for Easter (LSB pg.222)