Reflections Through The Passion - Day 9
by Peter Blount and Andy Cokayne 3 April 2021
In The Tomb
Reading: Matthew 27 : 57 – 61
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The Easter Music for the piano that follows is gentle – I suggest you let it play as a backdrop for the time you spend sharing in this Easter Saturday reflection
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Four years ago I was able to visit, as part of my holiday, a town in South West Canada called Whistler, you may recognise the name as it played host to the 2010 Winter Olympics.
It is very typical of a ski resort with lots of ski lifts and cable cars serving two huge mountains either side of the valley in which Whistler sits. However, there is one cable car called Peak2Peak, which does exactly that and taking skiers from one peak to the opposite one, high – in fact very high above the valley floor. In case you are wondering No, I didn’t try it!!
Now, I’m sure you are thinking, this is all very interesting but what has it to do with Easter Saturday. Well, not long ago, I heard Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday described as two mountain top experiences with an enormous, unfathomable valley between them. And on Easter Saturday we find ourselves perhaps at the lowest point possible in this chasm of despair, sadness and grief.
However, unlike my memory from Whistler, there is no way to get from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday without the excruciating pain of the events in Jesus life that lay between them.
Here is a thought from Sue, our children and families worker.
When I plan children’s activities for a whole Easter weekend, Holy Saturday is always the most difficult to think about. It feels like a day of waiting, we have focused on the cross on Good Friday and we are waiting to celebrate the resurrection tomorrow. I remember reading a few years ago:
“Holy Saturday seems to me to describe the place in which many of us live our lives: waiting for God to speak. We know that Jesus died for us yesterday. We trust that there may be miracles tomorrow. But what of today – this eternal Sabbath when heaven is silent? Where we wonder, is God now?” (Peter Greig)
This year has felt like a year of waiting. Waiting for an end to lockdown, waiting to see family and friends… but we know that in the quietness and change from our normal routines God is still with us and He is still working.
In the children’s Easter activity packs, I have suggested a Holy Saturday walk using some resources from “Muddy Church”. We will be looking for footsteps or animal tracks as we think about Jesus’ journey to the cross, looking for dark and light places and signs of new life. Perhaps you would like to join us in looking for these things on your own walk as we remember our miracle working God is with us today and every day.
In the quote Peter Greig describes today, Easter Saturday, as ‘This eternal Sabbath when Heaven is silent’!
We can only judge if Heaven is still silent when we listen. Often silence is the best medium through which God speaks to us in these modern times. So through today’s pain and looking forward to tomorrow I encourage us all to keep listening!
Prayers Through The Passion.
Heavenly Father, how often we find ourselves in limbo, between the now and the not yet. Between what we would love to be, and yet realise what we truly are. We thank you for your patience with us, that you will never throw in the towel and say enough is enough, because you know we are a work in progress. Enable us to accept that your Son’s sacrifice was made for each one of us, that through Him, and Him alone, can we look forward to Easter Sunday and the victory that it brings.
Amen
Whilst we abide in valley of pain this song is a reminder that ‘Jesus paid it all’!
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