Glorious Saturday

We have come through our time of travel, due solely and only to the enabling power of the Holy Spirit. He has kept our feet persevering, and strong to climb to the heights of Golgotha, the Place of the Skull, where our Loving Jesus was lifted high, weak, suffering, hurting, thirsty and helpless, on the cursed cross of sin. There, on that cross of sin, our Holy Jesus paid the price of sin, not one sin belonging to Him, but all belonging to you, me and the whole world. He shed His Precious Blood for all sinners.

We have come through our Lord’s agony and triumphs, His human weakness and Spiritual strength, as up to His last moments before He died, He was being mocked, scorned and ridiculed by the very ones He was dying to save. Ever ringing in our ears; ever burning in our hearts; ever etched on our minds are these words of the mercy prayer of Jesus, to the Father, for all who have done Him wrong, all who are doing Him wrong and all who would do Him wrong. Our lives are ever changing, ever repenting, yet ever thankful, when we hear Him pray, not for vengeance or retribution, or any kind of punishment for us who have wronged Him and still wrong Him, but for forgiveness. Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. Luke 23: 34a.

On this Glorious Saturday, or Holy Saturday as it is also known, we have come to the final day of Holy Week and the final day of travels for forty days and forty nights in the Lent. Today is our day of descent, where we are leaving the place of the Skull to go to the place of the Tomb. Still guided by the Holy Spirit, He who has been faithful and just in keeping and sustaining us, especially in those times when we simply would give up because of the sheer rigors and demands of the journey, we follow with quickened feet.

We are following two different disciples of Jesus who have been brought before us as secret disciples, or perhaps, disciples who served Jesus from afar. We are first introduced to Joseph of Arimathea. This is how he has been described. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders. John 19: 38b. John informs us of this. He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. John 19: 39a. Before us are two secret disciples of Jesus, who have come out in public, to serve Jesus in His death.

On this Glorious Saturday, is this not a glorious story to tell of the saving works of Jesus? Have you thought of this? At this time of Jesus’ death, when things in Jerusalem are really at a high, and when the Jewish leaders do not even want Pilate to write this inscription, JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS, above the cross of Jesus, these two disciples have come out into the open.

When it is known that followers of Jesus could be arrested, as they earlier, tried to arrest a young follower of His, since Jesus is still a charlatan and fake in the eyes of the religious, these two disciples are no longer in hiding.

At the time when the disciples of Jesus, those who were publicly and openly following Him, not fearing the Jewish leaders, are now in hiding fearing the Jewish leaders, these two men have surfaced. In this most volatile time, they stand alone, in boldness and fearlessness, to ask for the Body of Jesus. Is this not indeed glorious? Does this not give testimony and example to the shed Blood of Jesus, as powerful to change and transform lives?

All throughout this Holy Week, we have been carrying with us this Bible text. If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. Romans 11: 17 – 18. We conclude with it and receive all that is being generously and gloriously fed to us. The text tells us that the nourishing sap sustains and supports the branches. Is this what we are observing, right here and now, in these two disciples? Faith allows us to believe that the Word fed to Nicodemus and Joseph, by Jesus, however He did it, was enough to strengthen and sustain these men, to lose all their anxiety of losing status and position, their fears of losing colleagues, friends and even family, and stand bold for Jesus. What did they do?

They were the two who went directly to Pilate and asked for the dead Body of Jesus.

They were the two who went into the bloody, smelly, gross place of the Skull, to take the nail-pierced Body of the One they truly loved, from the Cross.

They were the two who carried Jesus’ bruised and beaten, lifeless Body, to a tomb for burial.

They were the two who lovingly prepared Jesus’ body for burial, according to the custom of the Jews.

They were the two who performed the last acts of service on the crucified Body of the Son of Man.

In the stillness and quiet of this moment will you see and listen? Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. John 19:40. All I know is that two self-preserving, status-protecting, secret-following disciples of Jesus Christ, are now different, changed, totally transformed. Is this not glorious? Is this not wonderful? Here is hope! Out of the death of Jesus, disciples, dead in fear and self, have risen to a life of boldness and courage through Jesus.

Will you ask yourself, on this final day of our mission, as I have asked myself, with growing hope, no longer the same, but totally transformed, will I now fully live without fear in the service of my Lord and Saviour? Am I a branch, so lifted out of my self-will and self-desires, by His ineffable Love, I cannot but lay down my life for Him also?

You and I are Jesus’ branches, fully nourished by His powerful, life-altering Word, that we cannot but love and serve Him as the Spirit enables, encourages and empowers.