Saturday, March 30, 2013 Job 19:21-27a, Psalm 43
Guy D. Griffith
Many
pundits hold that this year’s Super Bowl Commercial contest was won by Dodge
Ram. Neither flashy nor filled with high-tech special effects, the two-minute
add was filled with still shots and images of farmers at work. What made the ad
so effective was hearing Paul Harvey’s distinctive voice reading, “So God Made
a Farmer.” The commercial introduced the iconic Harvey to a new generation;
since his voice was silenced by death at age 90 in 2009. But some of us old
enough to remember his radio program can still hear him say, “Now, for the rest of the story….”
On Holy
Saturday we long to hear “the rest of the
story” but we must wait. We left the
Good Friday sanctuary in silence, in darkness, having encountered the
crucifixion in all its stark finality. Death has carried the day; sin has
triumphed; the paschal candle is extinguished. We who have ‘gone to dark
Gethsemane’ and have ‘trembled, trembled, trembled’ at the Lord’s crucifixion,
have to wait in silence on this Saturday. What must it have been like for
Jesus’ first followers, who did not know
“the rest of the story”?
In a former church we had a
Saturday night service and it fell to me to preach on Holy Saturday. It was
very helpful to read Alan E. Lewis’ Between
Cross & Resurrection: A Theology of Holy Saturday. This remarkable work
written by Austin Seminary’s theologian as he was dying reminds us that, in
fact, we do have words to speak. Scripture gives us words, elegant, defiant
words uttered from the midst of grief and despair; Scripture gives us the words
of Job: “I know that my Redeemer lives.” We wait in that knowledge and hope on
this silent Saturday, waiting for “the
rest of the story” that is coming.
Prayer: Let me live with patience, hope and
expectation on this silent Saturday, O God, so that I will be startled anew and
afresh by the miracle of Easter.
Daily Challenge: Imagine what it must have been like on that
first Holy Saturday for the disciples.
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