What about Holy Saturday?

Before I stepped out the door to take the dog for a walk earlier this morning, I pulled up the weather app on my phone to check for the current wind velocity.  You see, even if the weather was looking great out the window and it was registering 60 degrees on my thermometer outback, I knew that the unseen wind could make a difference!  So, sure enough, the app told of 14 mph winds from the south… and I added my thermal vest to my light hoodie, shorts and hiking boots ensemble… quite fashionable don’t you think?

When I stepped outside in the front, I found the atmosphere to be calm, quiet, except for a single bird chirping, and on the warm side.  If I didn’t know better, I would have thought that I’d made a mistake with my outfit choices.  But I continued on, turned left and we walked in front of my neighbor’s house and onto the grassy commons area between the houses and the golf course… and right into the wind tunnel that blows freely, unencumbered by the array of houses!

After being in this neighborhood for a year, I had not only heard about the wind blowing outside the protection of the houses, but had also personally experienced it on many occasions on our daily walks… kind of like the theme for today’s Holy Saturday blog post.

As a kid growing up in church, and then continuing on as an adult, I always remember and appreciated the stories of Jesus’ sufferings and passion on Good Friday, and then rejoiced with the celebration of Christ’s victorious resurrection on Easter morning.  But the day in-between was always kind of a mystery or maybe better said, a bit of a let-down between the two biggest events in the life of the Christian church.

Holy Saturday as it is most usually called, seems to be a time of rest, reflection and preparation for the church before the joy of Resurrection Sunday.  In the Jewish tradition it is the Sabbath where no labor is to be done and is used as a time to honor the Lord.  At the time of Jesus’ death, His body had been removed in honor of the Sabbath and then wrapped in linens and placed in a new tomb.  A large rock was rolled over to seal the tomb until the proper embalming procedures could be applied the next day.

But in reality… while the followers of Jesus rested and tried to make sense of what had just happened with the death of their leader and the movement He started… Jesus was far from resting but was actively pursuing His calling and role as the one perfect sacrifice for the sins of mankind by fighting the greatest battle NEVER seen or heard!

Near his death, long after the events of that first Easter, John told of his vision of Jesus in heaven and stated, “When I saw him, I fell down at his feet like a dead man. Then he laid his right hand on me and said, "Don't be afraid! I am the first and the last, the living one. I was dead, but now I am alive forever. I have the keys of death and hell.” (Revelation 1:18 God’s Word ©)

Well, we know about His death, burial and resurrection… we honor His death and burial on Good Friday and His glorious resurrection on Easter Sunday… but what’s with the KEYS?  How did Jesus get those and what do they mean for us?  Why did Jesus tell the Apostle John about His set of keys… we all carry some around right?

Hummm… let’s think about this.  Keys represent ownership, like the keys we have for our house or our car, right?  They represent authority as well.  I have authority over who I let drive my car or even to whom I choose to enter my home.  My name is on the deed of both of those items.  Nothing can happen with those 2 pieces of property without my signature… without my permission.

So, Jesus had the keys of death and hell… How did He get ahold of them?  Well, Paul just happens to give us a hint in Colossians 2:13-15 where he writes of what Jesus did for you and me stating, “You were once dead because of your failures and your uncircumcised corrupt nature. But God made you alive with Christ when he forgave all our failures.  He did this by erasing the charges that were brought against us by the written laws God had established. He took the charges away by nailing them to the cross.  He stripped the rulers and authorities of their power and made a public spectacle of them as he celebrated his victory in Christ.” (God’s Word ©)

Cool huh?  But just exactly WHEN did all this happen?  You guessed it!  On Holy Saturday between Good Friday and Easter.  For us that day tends to be a quiet day, but for Jesus… it was most likely the busiest and most active day of His eternal life!

And while Paul doesn’t give us all the gory details of Jesus’ adventures in the kingdom of darkness where the devil presides and figured that he had finally destroyed Jesus and man’s only hope for a life in heaven, he did clearly report that Jesus “stripped the rulers and authorities of their power and made a public spectacle of them as he celebrated his victory in Christ.”  I believe that this was one of the things that Paul heard during his vision of heaven described in 2 Corinthians 12:2-4.

I can’t help but to get very excited when I hear this story!  And now that I’ve HEARD about what happened on that day… I want to personally EXPERIENCE it.  How about you?

The Passion Translation says “And by the power of the cross, Jesus led them around as prisoners in a procession of triumph.” (Colossians 2:15)  Jesus went to hell and fought the greatest battle ever fought for the very souls of all men and women… for you and me!  WOW!  And then He paraded them down the streets of Satan’s lair for everyone to see!  Talk about embarrassment!

So now you can see that Holy Saturday wasn’t a quiet day at all… at least not for Jesus! 

Today, I am choosing to celebrate the Greatest Battle that was ever fought and won for you and me!  And you know what is even more special for us today?  The devil IS STILL a defeated foe and he IS STILL stripped of his power and authority over you and me!  Ephesians 2:6 makes this clear by saying, “God has brought us back to life together with Christ Jesus and has given us a position in heaven with him.” (God’s Word ©)

And the position we have with Jesus in heaven is a position at the right hand of God where we have been given authority (through Jesus’ authority) over the lies of the devil!  Which means that while the devil may try to inflict all kinds of troubles on us… all we have to do is stand in the authority that Jesus gave to us… or better yet… fought for us to have on Holy Saturday… and then remind the devil of his defeat at the hands of Jesus… on the devil’s home turf a few thousand years ago!

Hummm… that kind of gives us a new outlook on the day between Good Friday and Easter… wouldn’t you say!

I pray that you have a glorious celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus tomorrow… but along the way to it today… that you also celebrate with great THANKFULNESS, the battle and victory that Jesus won for us on Holy Saturday!

You know… God REALLY does want His best for us!