lenten blog | April 19, 2025

Holy Saturday

Throughout the year, the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ reproduces the Daily Lectionary for use by churches.  These are the suggested readings for Holy Saturday, April 19th:  Job 14:1-14 or Lamentations 3:1-9, 19-24; Psalm 31:1-4, 15-16; 1 Peter 4:1-8; and Matthew 27:57-66 or John 19:38-42.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

Today is the last day of Lent.  As I have mentioned consistently, Lent is different than Advent.  Advent intentionally prepares us for Christmas.  Lent’s 40 days culminate not with Easter, but with the cross and the tomb.  It is disingenuous to the reality of Jesus’ suffering and death for us to approach Lent with Easter’s assurance.  During Lent we should try to appreciate the psychological, spiritual and physical trauma that Jesus endured, and those are all mitigated if Jesus knew definitively about Easter.  So for us as Christians to spiritually approach the memory of the cross we need to try and do so as did Jesus, and that means Lent ends at Golgotha and, at least according to today’s Gospel, at the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. 

Suffering and death were as real for Jesus as for any of us – maybe even more so.  The oldest extant piece of Christian literature is 1 Thessalonians.  In this Epistle, Paul lays out a contrast that my NRSV Bible chooses not to capture.  If your Bible translation is different than this, please check the footnotes.  Paul writes, “Since we believe that Jesus died (ἀποθνῄσκω) and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep (κοιμάω).” (4:14)  You don’t need to know Greek to see that these two words are different, and yet the NRSV translates them both as died.  Paul softens the death of Christians because Jesus faced its blunt force in our stead.  We can hope in the resurrection so we fall asleep in death.  Paul realizes that Jesus did not have this luxury and so Jesus’ mortality is referred to as died.

John Chrysostom was a fourth century church father.  He once preached at a funeral that the congregation should not be mourning because they have Easter’s assurance.  I think this has its problems, but the fact remains that Chrysostom is repeating Paul’s assurance that death is not permanent for us because of Easter, but Jesus on the cross does not fall asleep into an Easter assurance.  Jesus faces death and dies so that we don’t have to die without hope.

Today we remember Jesus’ death.  His dead and scarred body is inside a dark tomb.  This is where Lent ends.  I hope Lent has offered us a space for contemplation, renewal, and a reminder of the power of faith, community, and inner peace.  As Sister Anne Curtis, the Executive Director of Mercy by the Sea Retreat Center, writes, “On the Lenten journey, we are called to trust there is something amazing to be found along the way: hope. … Lent is ‘the season of hope’ because our God does not give up on us, and it is this unwavering love that enables us to stay grounded.”  That God does not give up on us is revealed perfectly in the reality of Jesus’ suffering, crucifixion and death.

But … because of the reality of Jesus’ death, death is not as fearsome a foe for us as it once was for Jesus, thus we enjoy the blessing of hope.  And so, even though Jesus could not, we are able to anticipate tomorrow’s joy.  On the holiest day of the year, I invite you to come and join us for a combined Easter Sunrise Service led by Rev. Dr. Linda Rhinehart Neas and myself at 2 Prospect Street in Hatfield, across from the American Legion at 6:00am.  Our church worship Service will follow at 9:30am.  I hope these Lenten blogs have added to your Lenten journey, and I would love to see you tomorrow as we joyously celebrate the new day announced by Jesus’ resurrection.
 
If you would like to join us for our online Bible study, please send an email to [email protected] for the Zoom logins.
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If you’d like, here is the link to the Southern New England Conference’s daily reading schedule:  www.sneucc.org/lectionary.