An 8 Day Meditation for Holy Week

Holy Saturday

Scripture: Matthew 27:57-66 (The tomb is sealed)

You threw me into the ocean depths, and I sank down to the heart of the sea. The mighty waters engulfed me; I was buried beneath your wild and stormy waves. Then I said, “O Lord, you have driven me from your presence. Yet I will look once more toward your holy Temple.” I sank beneath the waves, and the waters closed over me. Seaweed wrapped itself around my head. I sank down to the very roots of the mountains. I was imprisoned in the earth, whose gates lock shut forever. (Jonah 2:3-6a)

Jonah was the sign that Jesus pointed to that foretold that He would go to the realm of the dead (Matthew 12:39-40). Jonah must have felt like he was in the depths of Hell by the way his poetic prayer described his experience of being swallowed by the great fish. How much more can we imagine what Jesus experienced in the abode of the dead on Holy Saturday?

Jesus entered death— and death consumed Him. He was totally under the power of death. His human soul was in the realm of the dead. In Psalm 88 we see words that we can presume were true for Him:

I am as good as dead, like a strong man with no strength left. They have left me among the dead,
and I lie like a corpse in a grave. I am forgotten, cut off from your care. You have thrown me into the lowest pit, into the darkest depths. Your anger weighs me down; with wave after wave you have engulfed me. (Vs 4-7)

The enemies of Jesus were busy making sure that the tomb was secure. They knew how much trouble would ensue if someone were to take the body. They remembered His words, that He would rise from the grave on the third day and they swiftly acted upon them. Interestingly, the disciples seemed to have forgotten the words of Jesus. They hid in fear behind locked doors in despair. Little did they know that although death had consumed Jesus; This Jesus was about to consume death!

On day 7 of our meditation let’s continue to wait on all that Jesus has for us individually and as a church family and let the waiting that God allows in our life conform us to the perfect and pleasing will of God.