Lent #7: A Holy Saturday Moment - Nothing To Do Except Wait

Today's post is from the 'Holy Week: Holy Saturday' reading of Lent for Everyone - Matthew by NT Wright. He shares from Matthew 27:57-66, the story of Joseph of Arimathea's request and action concerning the body of Jesus, the women sitting outside the tomb, and the request of the religious leaders to Pilate to secure the tomb.

Wright comments that they tried to keep Jesus safely dead and still do today..."Sometimes, though, we Christians need to observe a Holy Saturday moment. On Holy Saturday, there is nothing you can do except wait. The Christian faith suffers great defeats...

"But God will do what God will do, in God's own time. The world can plot and plan, but all of that will count for nothing when the victory already won on the cross turns into the new sort of victory on the third day...Who knows what will happen next, after the sneering and scheming of the skeptics of our day? Our part is to keep Holy Saturday in faith and hope...

"And there is usually something to be done in the present, even when times are sad and hard. It took considerable courage for Joseph of Arimathea to go to Pontius Pilate and ask for Jesus' body. Peter and the others had run away to hide because they were afraid...Joseph had no such qualms, even after Jesus' death.

"Some of Jesus' followers might well have thought that, if the Romans had crucified him, he can't have been the Messiah, so he must have been a charlatan...But Joseph didn't see it that way.

"...We aren't sure why we've got to this place, why things aren't going as we wanted or planned, and the life seems to have drained out of it all. That's a Holy Saturday moment. Do what has to be done, and wait for God to act in his own way and his own time."

"Help us, gracious Lord, to wait for your victory, and in the meantime to serve you in whatever way we can."