Rest and Reflection Saturday

In this Easter UPGRADE, Dawn Wilson encourages us to prepare our hearts by thinking about the day before Easter—something she calls "Rest and Reflection Saturday."

I never really thought much about the Saturday before Easter.

Other than to sing the words, “Low in the grave He lay, Jesus, my Savior,” Saturday wasn’t in my religious tradition.

Now I understand an important truth. After Jesus declared His work for sinners "finished" (John 19:30)—on what we call “Good Friday”—He honored the Sabbath, just as He did at the beginning of creation.

In other words, on Saturday in the tomb, our Lord RESTED. Friday was a grueling, torturous day for our Savior. But …

On Saturday, the Lord rested from His work of providing salvation for us.

There was no additional price Jesus had to pay. “Jesus paid it all,” as the hymn says. Our sin was fully atoned for, "once for all."

G. K. Chesterton wrote in "The Everlasting Man" that this particular Sabbath Jesus spent in the tomb was the last Sabbath of the old creation.

The disciples, on Resurrection Sunday morning, celebrated "the first day of a new creation,” Chesterton said—as do WE!

I saw a fine art print of “Jesus in the Tomb,” part of James Jacques Joseph Tissot’s “The Life of Christ” series (1884-96)—for sale at this site.

The print made me think of the deep grief the Lord’s followers must have felt that Saturday as they laid him in the tomb.

We think the disciples had no way of knowing what the next day would bring,

but Jesus had told them what to expect in Mark 9:31.

I like to call the Saturday before Easter “Rest and Reflection Saturday.”

It’s a quiet, meditative bridge between two days—a time of pausing and thinking about:

• what Jesus finished on Friday,
• and what He would start on Sunday.

I’ve been thinking about the tomb of Christ. The body of Jesus remained in the borrowed tomb all of Saturday.

The tomb was a dark place. Tombs are place of darkness, death and sorrow.

On Rest and Reflection Saturday, I think about how dark my soul would be without hope in Jesus.

But the tomb is only part of the story. Sunday would come, and Jesus would rise from the dead.

God’s requirement for our salvation would be satisfied—Jesus is the "propitiation" for our sins—but also, our hope in Jesus would be satisfied.

Salvation and Eternal life with God would be our new reality if we placed our faith in what Jesus accomplished for us in the cross and resurrection—a reason for rejoicing!

Without the resurrection, we would still be in a very dark place.

Condemned in our sins, darkness would pervade every corner of our lives. (John 3:19-20;

But Jesus came to give us His light!

For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light (Ephesians 5:8-9).

Many say they have faith in God, but without embracing the Gospel message (1 Cor. 15:1-4), our faith is “futile.” We would still be in our sins (1 Corinthians 15:17). But Christ was raised from the dead and we are alive in Him, victorious over sin and death.

The Christ-followers on that sad Saturday weren’t only grieving; they were fearful and in hiding (Mark 14:50; John 20:19). They were afraid of being arrested and killed. They desperately needed peace.

What likely went through the disciples’ minds and tormented their emotions?

• Surely the disciples reflected on their Lord’s crucifixion and the dashing of their hopes for a Messiah to conquer their enemies.
• Maybe they reflected on the betrayal of Judas.
• Perhaps Peter was still weeping over his own betrayal.
• Was John, the “disciple Jesus loved,” especially heartbroken?

How should WE reflect on these days?

• Do we understand our hopes would be dashed to ever deal with sin, our flesh and the devil without the death and resurrection of Jesus?
• How many ways have we betrayed the Lord who loved us enough to die for us?
• Are we heartbroken over our sin?
• Do we understand what Jesus did to transform our lives?
• Are we grateful for our salvation, or do we take it for granted?

While the disciples grieved, the enemies of Christ were busy on that Saturday. They remembered what Jesus had said about rising in three days (Matthew 27:62-66; John 2:19-21). They tried to prevent that by stationing a Roman guard at the tomb.

But miraculously, the next morning the tomb would be empty.

Nothing could stop the plan of God!

The Savior would accomplish the Father’s will (John 6:32-44)—God’s plans cannot not be thwarted. 

So today, Saturday:

Take time to rest. Take time to reflect.

And on Sunday morning, let the Holy Spirit remind you:

“Your Redeemer is Risen … He is risen indeed.”

Dawn Wilson, founder and President of Heart Choices Today, is a speaker and author, and the creator the blog, Upgrade with Dawn. She is a contracted researcher/reviewer for women's teacher and revivalist, Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, at Revive Our Hearts, a blogger at TrueWoman.com, writes wiki-type posts at  Christianity.com, and is a regular columnist at Crosswalk.com. She and her husband Bob live in sunny Southern California, and Dawn has traveled with Him in Pacesetter Global Outreach. They have two grown, married sons, three granddaughters and a rascally maltipoo, Roscoe.

Graphic adapted, courtesy of Pexels at Pixabay.