Good Friday, Easter Sunday…What Did Jesus Do on Saturday?
On Good Friday Jesus was crucified.
On Easter Sunday he was resurrected.
So what did Jesus do on Saturday?
That question was posed at my house as we celebrated on Easter Sunday.
I heard a story recently about a local physician who every year on Good Friday, instead of the typical white lab coat look he normally wears, will put on a dark suit instead. His patients, used to him looking medical like, would ask why he was wearing a suit, are you going to a wedding or going to a funeral?
“A funeral” he would answer.
“Well who died?”
“Jesus.”
This was his way of reminding people.
Kim and I went to church on Good Friday. The service is always moving and somber. It is, well, like a funeral.
When I was a kid growing up in New Jersey I didn’t go to church on Good Friday, only on Easter Sunday. After church, my parents would pack us all into the Corvair and we would make the drive north through Little Silver and Red Bank to the McDonald’s in Middletown. This was one of the few times we would go out to eat at any restaurant so it was a real event. Our Easter dinner would be hamburgers or cheeseburgers, French fries, and milk shakes because that is all they served back then. You just drove up, parked, walked up to the window and got your food and ate it in the car. No indoor playrooms or sitting at a table. It was great.
Easter was also, other than maybe Christmas or the start of the new school year, one of the few times we got new clothes. My sister would get a frilly dress and the rest of us little suits and maybe a hat.
In our new clothes, we would visit with the extended family and that was about it, but it was always a nice day.
Easter traditions change. The suits and hats are now replaced by Hawaiian shirts and khakis. There is nothing really special about McDonald’s anymore so thankfully home cooking is a better option. And they don’t make Corvairs anymore, maybe we should be thankful for that too.
I got up this past Saturday morning and did the usual; I paid a couple of bills and ran some errands. Like other holidays, now that the kids are older, they have their own obligations so I was expecting to see them and feed them more in shifts this year and had to plan accordingly.
In the afternoon we did what we have always done this time of the year for the last almost 15 years, we took our dirt and our tools and some potted flowers and went up to the cemetery to plant new at Donny’s grave site. Cameron helped this year getting the water and unloading the truck.
We cooked dinner on grill and then sat outside on the patio. When it got a little later we put Cameron to bed. Kim always says prayers with Cameron before bed and on this evening he thanked God for the nice day and for planting flowers for Uncle Donny.
He made a comment to Kim that Uncle Donny was “as tall as the world” or “taller than the world” and when she asked him to explain he just said that Uncle Donny “was in Heaven with Jesus.”
“Cameron how do you know that?” she asked.
“I just know” he said.
Church on Sunday was awesome. To our surprise we had the whole local family with us at church and we filled a pew. The preacher’s sermon was great.
Who will roll away the stone? The question asked by Mary and Mary in Mark 16 verse 3 on their way to the tomb early on that Sunday morning.
The stone.
The stone of great weight blocking their way to Jesus in the tomb.
In our sermon the preacher explained that the stone represented all those hard times in our lives. Those times of tragedy, divorce, loss of a job, an unexpected diagnosis. All things tough.
It spoke to all of those sitting in my pew.
Just as I am sure it spoke to all of those in the pews surrounding me.
We all have had those stones. Some have been heavier and harder to move than others. Many we still feel the weight of.
Sometimes we even plant flowers around them.
What did Jesus do on Saturday?
Maybe it was meant to be that way, to have that day in between.
Maybe Jesus, like us, needed a day of contemplation.
A day of reflection.
Maybe he was focusing on the weight of that stone and what was to be.
Maybe he was even starting to move that stone, as the world and life beyond it became clearer.
I think so.
How do I know?
“I just know.”
