I always think of the Saturday of Holy Week as a day of mourning. The followers of Jesus saw Him die on a Roman cross. They knew he was buried in a tomb, a great stone was rolled across the entrance, and a guard stationed to make sure Jesus stayed buried. Now they were hiding behind locked doors. They were fearful that the same ones who took their Master would now come for them.
There was more than just fear as they sat behind those locked doors. They shared a common guilt … most had deserted Him in his final hours. How could they go on after what they had done.
On this day they also shared a common grief. Not only with each other but also with God.
Long ago, in the days of Noah, God expressed His grief in mankind’s rebellion and wickedness.
“When the Lord saw that man’s wickedness was widespread on the earth and that every scheme his mind thought of was nothing but evil all the time, the Lord regretted that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.” [Genesis 6:5-6 HCSB]
It was that rebellion and wickedness which brought God’s Son to earth to fulfill the Father’s plan to bring His children back to Him. God’s Son, “a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.”
“He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted.” [Isaiah 53:3-4 NKJV]
Now as Jesus’ body was in the tomb, the followers of Christ got a small glimpse of the result of man’s wickedness and evil. Their friend, their leader was dead, and, on this day, their hope is crushed.
But as it has been said many times before … Sunday is Coming!