Saturday's Silence

          "Be ye also patient; establish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord is at hand."
                                                           James 5:8




This Saturday is my husband, Brent's birthday. (For his sake, I will not disclose how many birthdays he has previously experienced!) Since his birthday falls on Easter weekend, it caused me to reflect on the significance of the Saturday that lies between Good Friday and Resurrection Day. Thinking back over my life, I do not recall a sermon ever being preached on the significance of the day that is sandwiched between the two most important days in history. And, since I currently seem to be in a "Saturday" mode in my own life, I was even more intrigued.

All the events leading up to Jesus' crucifixion had been tumultuous and rapid. On the day that Jesus was crucified, God showed up in many unmistakeable ways. The curtains in the Temple were tattered, an earthquake shook the ground, the sun was hidden and darkened and the Lamb of God was sacrificed to save a people who had just put Him to death. Graves of the dead were opened and the disciples and loved ones of Jesus felt like their hearts had been ripped open and laid to bare.

The women in Jesus' life anointed his body and placed it in Joseph's tomb. And, on Saturday, everything was still. Jesus' body was still. The angels were still. The actions and voice of God were muted as the earth and its inhabitants gulped in pockets of air, effectually trying to process all the events that had just taken place. After a chaotic and hair-raising Friday, the stark contrast of the silence of Saturday reverberated throughout the universe without a word.

Fear began to dominate as the disciples hid behind locked doors. Afraid of the Jewish leaders who conspired to take Jesus' life, it felt safer to be hidden and out of sight (John 20:19). Their fears were legitimate, too, because at the same time, the chief priests and Pharisees met with Pilate to seal Jesus' tomb so that the disciples would not be able to steal His body (Matthew 27:62-66).

At the same time, we are told that the women who were with Jesus during His crucifixion rested because it was the Sabbath (Luke 23:56). As they were commanded, they spent the day honoring the Lord amidst what was surely confusion and bewilderment. So many questions had to surface in their hearts with very few answers to be found.

This is the dichotomy that is found in God's silence. It is so easy to vacillate between fear bewilderment. It is the time between the prayers that are offered and the answers to those prayers. It is the lapse that is found between the problem and the solution. It is the angst we experience when our questions mount and the answers to them still seem elusive.

                                     "God, are you there?"

                                     "Are you angry at me?"

                                     "I know you are able, yet I see no progress."

                                     "Please confirm that there is a plan in this."

(My favorite yet often useless question) "WHY????"

If you can't tell, I tend to ask a lot of questions. What I have found, however, is that it is the truth of God's Word that lights my path and directs my steps. If I will open the Word and declare what the Word says, peace will inevitably flood my heart. Even when I lack full understanding, there is a solace in knowing that God is God and He's already handled my situation and circumstances.

Even still, Silent Saturdays can be long and the silence of them most certainly deafening. If we are waiting for a healing or some type of redemption or restoration, the seconds can seem like days. The higher the stakes are for what we are believing, the more intense the pressure is around us.  The only true way for the time to seem to go faster is if we are single-mindedly focused on Jesus. Worshipping in the midst of the tomb, before we witness the Resurrection, is the highest form of praise that blesses the heart of God.

As I see it, if we are in a season of waiting, we can either survive it or we can thrive in it. God's purposes are that we rest, learn, seek His face and grow as a result of it. No amount of worry or fear or doubt will expedite our process (it actually may prolong it). We can wait and nervously watch the seconds tick on the clock, or we can wait well by trusting in the Lord and having the expectation that He will bring breakthrough. Just as Jesus "rested" in the tomb, we can learn to spend our time confident that we will see the deliverance we seek.

Quiet confidence and trust are our best resources when we experience the silence of Saturday. Jesus died with such conviction when He said, "For you will not leave my soul among the dead or allow your Holy One to rot in the grave" (Acts 2:27). Jesus understood that God would never leave Him or forsake Him, especially in the grave.  Even during His darkest hour, Jesus knew that He could count on God. His Father would never fail Him or abandon Him.

While the enemy of our souls wants us to believe that God's silence is also God's absence, that is never the truth. That's what Silent Saturday teaches us. God is never apathetic to what we are experiencing. He cares deeply for every small thing that concerns us and will certainly answer our prayers in His timing.

Think about it this way. If God immediately rushed in and instantaneously answered every prayer, would we really respect and reverence His power in the same way we do when He shows up after an elongated battle? How would He "train our hands for war" (Psalm 18:34) and strengthen us for what lies ahead if we never had to use any spiritual muscles?

Silent Saturdays do have their purpose. They are positioned with precision to bring about God's desired results. They prepare us for the answers that are coming.  When God wants our full attention to something that He is accomplishing, He masterfully sets the stage for such to occur. It is like a dramatic pause in a theater production or opera that then heralds an unforgettable crescendo. Suddenlies occur when we place our faith in God and rest in His timing.

As we enter in to the holiest days of our faith, may we approach them with the faith that Resurrection Day is at hand and the eve of Silent Saturday must dissipate to the breaking of the dawn of Easter morning. Our God is faithful and He will complete that which He has started (Philippians 1:6). There is no story that is more redemptive or restorative than that of Jesus, Himself. In Jesus' story, as in our own, Silent Saturday is only a blip on the radar that gives way to the rolling away of a stone and the glorious appearance of our Risen King!


                                               HAVE A BLESSED EASTER!!!


          "O Lord, we wait for you; Your Name and remembrance are the desire of our soul."
                                                              Isaiah 26:8