Day of reflection (Holy Saturday)
Holy Saturday is a day to reflect on what happened, sometimes we are blinded not by what we see or hear but, by what we do not see or hear. To understand what happened we need to look through the veil that was torn from the top to the bottom.
But Yeshua, again crying out in a loud voice, yielded up his spirit. At that moment the parokhet (veil that separated man from God) in the Temple was ripped in two from top to bottom; and there was an earthquake, with rocks splitting apart. Also the graves were opened, and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life.
Matthew 27:50-52
Jesus Christ came to reveal the Father and His love for us, and the moment Jesus said it is finished, the veil was torn and removed as the true nature of God then was revealed to all. God in His wisdom and love from the beginning focused on an everlasting day not just a day. God’s redemptive plan is not for a generation but for all mankind. God is love and His character of love is patience as mentioned in 1 Corinthians 13.
God will never leave us without hope of the things to come, thus we can wait with expectation of the fulfilment of His promises. Jesus foretold His disciples concerning His death and the victorious resurrection, but if we focus on the death despair enter in. However if we consider that God in His love always gives hope and meaning through His Word and the prophets, we must ask ourselves where is the hope in the day after. We find it in the Words of Jesus on the Cross, Matthew 27:46 “At about three, Yeshua uttered a loud cry, “Eli! Eli! L’mah sh’vaktani? (My God! My God! Why have you deserted me?)”
The mentioned might have sounded as a cry of desperation but was not! It was a reminder of God’s love for a lost world to bring them hope. The Words Jesus called out was to direct us and the bystanders to Psalm 22 that start with these words “My God! My God! Why have you abandoned me?”.
Considering Psalm 22 we see that everything that took place on the day of Jesus’s crucifixion, was prophesied through the Psalm writer! He specifically declared that the death of Jesus on the cross is not the end but the victory as proclaimed at the end of Psalm 22 with these victorious words :
“All the ends of the earth
will remember and turn to ADONAI;
all the clans of the nations
will worship in your presence.
For the kingdom belongs to ADONAI,
and he rules the nations.
All who prosper on the earth
will eat and worship;
all who go down to the dust
will kneel before him,
including him who can’t keep himself alive,
A descendant will serve him;
the next generation will be told of Adonai.
They will come and proclaim
his righteousness
to a people yet unborn,
that he is the one who did it.
The day of reflection is for all of us to realize that we need our Lord and Saviour to fill us with hope for the future as we fix our gaze upon Him and His ability to do the impossible.