On the Sabbath day, Jesus rested. Consider that for a minute: Friday, He fulfilled all the righteous requirements of the Law, was placed in the tomb, and rested. We don’t hear much in Scripture about the Saturday after good Friday (though what we do hear gives us no end to speculations). It was a day of silence. The 11 apostles who remained (Judas hanged himself) were in hiding, the followers of Jesus were scattered; for them, in that moment, there was no hope. They had forgotten or did not understand what Jesus had been telling them, that His death and burial were part of the plan. Had they known, the victory of Sunday would not have been lost on them, but, as it was, they were hidden.
Sometimes, we, too, are in hiding from the world, and even from God. We take His silence (or what we perceive as His silence) to mean He’s not hearing us, or not answering. But we are called to wait. Silence is not evil, and rest is not wicked: in fact, both can be, and in the right contexts, are Holy. Jesus rested from His labors in a tomb, but the tomb was not His final word. We know the gift of Sunday Morning, that He who gave His life up as a ransom for many rose again. But Saturday was a day of silence, and so, we too wait to celebrate the day that sealed our salvation. Rest in the silence of the day, reflect on what Jesus has done for you.
Isaiah 53
Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.
Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.
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