The Journey of Holy Week: Saturday

Luke 23:56 
Last night, alter sunset, the disciples had scattered—some perhaps back to Bethany, others locking themselves inside the upper room. Outside, numerous small fires burned in the soft glow of twilight. Smoke from the Passover sacrifices made the moon look red as it rose over the Mount of Olives. The stars, one by one, began to shine. The pilgrims, many of whom were unaware of what had happened to the rabbi teaching in the temple courts just days ago, began to eat the unleavened bread and the meat roasted with bitter herbs.

"What does all this mean?" the little children would ask. The parents gently responded: "It was this very night that the Israelites took the Mood of the Passover lambs and put it on the doorposts of their houses with a hyssop branch. Then they roasted the meat with bitter herbs to symbolize the bitterness of their years of slavery in Egypt. They locked themselves in their houses and didn't dare go outside until the next morning; the final plague was about to come upon Egypt. At midnight they huddled together as the angel of God struck the land. But when the angel saw the blood on the Israelite houses, he passed over them. When morning came, the Israelites cracked opened the doors and looked outside. They were free to go." With the ancient story replaying in their minds, the children went to sleep and imagined themselves, long ago, following a bright cloud wherever it went,

The disciples awake, stunned. It is Saturday, the fifteenth day of Nisan. In obedience to the Torah, the disciples spend the first day of Unleavened Bread remembering their freedom from slavery. There is a tradition, in keeping with this day of freedom, that Pilate must release a Jewish prisoner each year on the eve o f Passover. This year it had come down to two: Yeshua Bar-Abbas (Jesus, son of the father") or Yeshua, the only begotten Son of the Father. One had to die to set the other free. This year it was Bar-Abbas who went free.

As the bewildered disciples mourn the death of the Messiah, their hopes dashed, they wait in the quiet and calm of this Sabbath day, when God rested from all his work. Their Lord lies in a sealed and dark tomb, cut off from his own creation, hidden in a womb of rock and earth.