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Rev. G. Scott Turnbrook – March 29th, 2009 – www.dluc.ca –
Daniel 6: 19-22, Mark 15: 42-47

I want you to imagine standing at the burial site of a loved one. The fragrance from flowers wofts up into your nostrils; the gentle the gentle wind kisses your face and your mind wanders as you consider the nature and meaning of life, and of death, and of what all this means. In scripture, Job asked a timeless searching question: “If a man [or woman] dies, will he [or she] live again?” And as we consider Holy Saturday – the day following Jesus death and burial, we come with many informing beliefs, with many questions, and with a faith that yearns to grow deeper into the heart of God.

I should say at the outset that I believe Holy Saturday to be the most confusing day of all the days recorded in Holy week. It is confusing because there is so little said. The gospel writers are quite silent today. It was, of course, the holy day of the Jewish people – it was their Sabbath. Yet nothing is written about Jesus on this day in scripture. As Marie read, Mark tells the story of Friday’s crucifixion and burial as occurring “on the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath” Joseph of Arimathea finds a way to have Jesus’ body released and his body is wrapped in a linen cloth and buried in the tomb. Mark next picks up the story on Easter Sunday with the discovery of the empty tomb writing “when the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him” Nothing is written of Holy Saturday. In a similar way, Matthew and John do not record any activity occurring on Saturday. The only gospel writer recording an event on Saturday is Luke who writes of the of the disciples’ activity: “On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment” (Luke 23:56b). Saturday is a direct contrast to the other days which contain so much detail. There is silence, there is rest, and indeed there is much reflection. This is the time when Jesus found himself somewhere between death and resurrection.

Journeying back 2,000 years, however, we can get an idea of what they were thinking occurred. We can look at Jewish tradition and theology, art, hymnody and church creeds. For the people of that time and understanding, Saturday was a day they believed when ‘God’s Great Cleanup’ was about to begin. Through their history, generations upon generations – indeed a millennia of Hebrew people had been systematically oppressed, enslaved, and murdered at the hands of the dominant forces who held power. They had been subjected to slavery in Egypt, later in Babylon, and now lived under the oppression of Roman rule. And in the times in between, they had been subject to varied attacks of neighbouring countries. The collective historical memory of the Hebrew people was one of pain, suffering and oppression – that is why Pslams like “we wept by the rivers of Babylon, when we remembered Zion” were so deeply ingrained in them.

But they did not give up. They held a belief that God would one day liberate the oppressed and make all things right. It would be a time of ‘God’s Great Cleanup’. Jewish theology understood this to occur in two ways. The first model of divine vindication held that God would intervene before the persecuted were killed. This was shown in the brief section Marie read from the one and one half chapter story of Daniel and the lion’s den. In that story, Daniel is saved from the lions and the ones who conspired against him are devoured. Witnessing this, the Medean King Darius commands that “in all my royal dominion people should tremble and fear before the God of Daniel.” (6:28). What appeared to be the certain death of Daniel was the time of God’s restoration for Daniel and the time of God’s transformation of the King.

The second way in which the Jewish people understood ‘God’s Great Cleanup’ coming about was in the divine vindication of the persecuted after their death. Generations upon generations of Jews had been killed at the hands of warring countries. And they held fast to a faith which proclaimed God’s restoration as extending to those who had already been killed. In the Apocrypha section of the Bible you will find a number of books written just before the time of Jesus. These are filled with the hope-filled beliefs for God’s coming vindication. In the second chapter of the book of Wisdom we read: “Let us test him with insult and torture, so that we may find out how gentle he is, and make trial of his forbearance. Let us condemn him to a shameful death, for, according to what he says, he will be protected.” (2:18-20). These were their deeply held beliefs - that their God would one day balance the scales and clean this great oppressive mess up. In some cases, their God would deliver them from the hands of their persecutors. And in others, those who had been persecuted and killed, God would – one day – bring restoration.

As we view the Jesus death at the hands of the oppressive forces of Rome, we must understand that the Jewish followers of Jesus saw God as bringing restoration. Jesus’ death would be the genesis of God’s Great Cleanup. Jesus’ death would be the beginning of God’s divine vindication that they had been waiting for over the centuries! Those who are familiar with some of the church creeds would recall how the Apostles’ Creed speaks of Jesus’ action on Saturday. The creed speaks of Friday saying: “[Jesus] suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead and buried”. It next speaks of Saturday when “[Jesus] descended into hell.” And finally it speaks of Sunday when “The third day he rose again from the dead”. While the gospels were silent about Jesus’ actions on Saturday, the early church – those first Christians steeped in Jewish theology - came to see Jesus as beginning God’s great cleanup. What did Jesus do on Saturday? In their understanding, Jesus descended to hell – while we don’t have time to get too deeply into their understanding of hell, suffice it to say that this was the pre-Dante’s inferno understanding of hell. They saw hell as a place of non-existence (not of eternal punishment as Dante and the Catholic church later taught). It was non-existence and devoid of life. Jesus descended into hell and he brought back with him all the faithful, persecuted Jews who had been martyred over the centuries. There is a wonderful piece of art which illustrates this belief much better than I can say in words. The “Anastasis” or Resurrection fresco was once found in the apse’s ceiling of the Chora Church in Istanbul. In this fresco a radiantly robed Christ reaches out with his left and right hands to pull Eve and Adam from their burial sarcophagi. He is flanked by the first martyr of the Old Testament – Abel – on his left and the first martyr of the New Testament – John the Baptist – on his right. Behind each of these two martyrs are six people – symbolizing how the twelve tribes of Israel are being led towards life through Christ. Finally (though it is obscured by the flash in this picture) there is an image of a bound and gagged Satan who has been defeated and lies at the feet of Jesus. This was the understanding at the time of the early church of what Jesus began on Saturday. It was the beginning of ‘God’s Great Cleanup’.

Now, as we fast-forward to 21st Century culture, we must be very careful as we seek to find God’s truth in Jesus’ story. There has been a tremendous shift in terms of the way we now seek truth compared to the biblical times. Since the Enlightenment period of the 17th Century, we now identify truth with that which can be factually proven. Indeed, this identification of truth with fact is a central characteristic of modern Western culture. Yet, this was not how the early Jewish Christians understood Saturday, nor was it the way that people of faith understood it for the next 1600 years. Today, we look at Saturday – the day between death and resurrection and we come with our scientific minds and we look for analytical proof that explains the mystery of what was happening. One of the most profound gifts of the gospel in this section, as I explained earlier, is that they are absolutely silent in giving us an answer. We don’t know what Jesus was up to and see we need to use our faith to uncover the answer that comes to each of us. What this does is cause us to think, to reflect and to ponder this central question of Jesus life, his death, and what truth is to be found. We – in essence – find ourselves back at the beginning of this reflection where we are – once again - standing at the graveside of a loved one and pondering what it all means. The lack of the gospels detailing Saturday’s activity requires us to find our own sense of truth in what is occurring.

So, allow me to share a few thoughts of my own, as we find ourselves at this graveside – reflecting on what is before us. I do not believe that death is the end of our lives, yet I do not entirely know how to talk about that. I have no words, I possess no concepts. I feel reduced to silence before this ultimate mystery of life – that even death can not conquer. But, if I was pressed to answer Job’s timeless searching question – with which we began our conversation: “If a man [or woman] dies, will he [or she] live again?” I would have to answer YES. For that is my conviction. That is what I believe.

While there seem to be no words to describe this idea, for Jesus it seemed to mean something like communion with God. It meant being in touch with something that transcended all of one’s human categories, including a transcendence of the individual self that one is. It meant having one’s eyes opened to see the dimensions of life that are so rarely witnessed. It meant having one’s ears opened to hear the melodies and harmonies that are so rarely heard. As I think of this time somewhere in between death and resurrection, I think that there is an implicit invitation into life – which when explored deeply enough, when lived fully enough, when engaged significantly enough - is a way of passing from death into transcendence. We know all too well that it is possible to live and it is possible to LIVE! In this way the finite moments slip into being infinite, timeless moments that are divine. I believe that human life can be lived so deeply, that love can be experienced so powerfully, that God’s living presence - in fact – can occur again and again and again.

This is the God whom we meet in Jesus of Nazareth - and this was the life of God that he brought to be with us and among us in Jesus. His was a life that would not be finally bound by human limits. When those whose fear of God’s Kingdom was so deep and threatened that they struck back to kill, they finally will be forced to discover that all they did was free the meaning of Jesus’ life for all to experience. Jesus’ life will be freed from the boundaries of the finite and made timeless, eternal and ever present. When the eyes of Simon will finally see the meaning of Jesus’ life, when the ears of Simon will finally hear the music of Jesus’ life, it will be then that Jesus will stare through that invisible but ever-so-real barrier that separates time from timelessness, the finite from the infinite, the human spirit from the Holy Spirit – and it will be at that moment when we will see Jesus as a window into the meaning of the timeless – which is God.

There is a danger of our modern day’s insistence on the quantifiable provability of Easter. For to contain this timeless gift inside a literal framework is to doom Easter’s truth to a death of irrelevance. And so we gather now, as people of faith have gathered for two millennia – we gather at the tomb and ponder and reflect and begin to uncover the divine. We hold our breath and wait to see what God’s answer will be to the powers of death and oppression. Can the tomb – the powers of death and darkness - hold Jesus? Or is there a greater power that we have yet to meet? Will Jesus now to be found in the land of the dead? Or is there a greater power at work which will have a final triumph? Will the powers of evil have the final judgment? Or is there yet to be a power who will give an ultimate judgment? Today, we find ourselves somewhere between life and death. Yet our faith draws us to wait and see. For our hearts somehow know that God is good and that all will be well.

Amen.