Saturday 19 April 2014

Holy Saturday


St Matthew 27: 62-66

62 The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. 63 “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ 64 So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.”

65 “Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.” 66 So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.

 

So,  what did Jesus do on Holy Saturday?   Was he in the tomb or was he someplace else?   The Holy Scriptures tell us a bit but it was the belief of the Church Fathers during the writing of the Apostles Creed that  Jesus descended into Hell and the third day he rose again from the dead.    Jesus was with the dead.

 

Prayer:  O God,  it is Your will that we should be baptized into the death of Your Son our Saviour,  give us true repentance that we may pass with him through the grave and gate of death, and be reborn to new life in joy,  through him who died, was buried, and who rose for us,  Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen. 

(Taize  “Praise in all our Days”  Mowbray, 1981).

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