A Holy Saturday Meditation
The Pharisees’ desire that the disciples be silenced while Jesus was entering Jerusalem has been fulfilled. The disciples have been silenced since Jesus’ arrest. Now, Jesus himself has been silenced. His last cry on the cross was the last we heard from him.
But that is not the end of the story. Remember, Jesus told the Pharisees that if the disciples were silenced, the stones would cry out (Lk 19:40). The stones continue their proclamation.
After Jesus dies, Joseph of Arimathea comes and takes Jesus’ body to a tomb “cut from the rock” or “hewn from stone.” He lays his body in stone. Will the stones cry out that Jesus was right and the Jews were wrong? Will the stones cry out that Jesus is King? Will the stones cry out that sins are forgiven and death is defeated? Jesus said the stones will cry out, but for now, they are silent.
But are they?
We can’t hear them, but God can. The word translated as “tomb” at the end of Luke 23 and through the resurrection story in Luke 24 is in the same family of words Jesus used to speak of his body being a memorial at the institution of the Lord’s Supper (Lk 22:19). Jesus is placed in a memorial hewn out of a rock. When God sees memorials, he moves to act in accordance with his covenant promises.
The stones are talking to God. They are telling him of his promise to Jesus before his birth, at his baptism, and his word to and about him on the Mount of Transfiguration. This memorial reminds God of his promises to his faithful Son. The rocks are still speaking, but they are speaking to God.
Not long from now, the rocks will cry out so the world will hear the proclamation that Jesus is King. This rock will be cut out of this mountain, roll down, bring down the kingdoms of this earth, establish itself as the kingdom, and then grow to fill the whole earth (Dan 2).
The stones will cry out.
From our perspective, Holy Saturday is quiet, but God continues to hear stones talking. Holy Saturday trains us to wait for God to act to fulfill his promises, but it also assures us that God has not forsaken us.
When our loved ones or we die in Christ, we enter a Holy Saturday of sorts. There is space between death and resurrection, that time of mourning and longing for reunion. We must wait. But our bodies are “stones” united to the Chief Cornerstone, and these stones cry out in the grave. Our bodies are memorials before God that cry out, “Hosanna,” or “Save us now, we pray!” Though our bodies lie silent in the grave so that no human ear can hear, these stones continue to cry out until God raises them from the dead.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
