HIGHLIGHT 

Matthew 27:57–66 

“Taking the body, Joseph wrapped it in clean linen cloth and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. — Matthew 27:59–60” 

EXPLAIN 

Holy Saturday is the most theologically neglected day of Holy Week, and perhaps the most personally honest. The disciples did not know Sunday was coming. They lived through a Saturday where everything they had believed for three years appeared to be buried behind a stone. Their hope was dead. Their rabbi was gone. The Sabbath had to be kept, so they rested. They were shell-shocked, grieving, and silent. We have the benefit of the full story, but much of our actual lives are spent in Holy Saturday, that is in the space between promise and fulfillment, between loss and redemption, between what we asked for and what has not yet arrived. As you respond, resist the urge to push through to Easter. Honor the Saturday. 

APPLY 

God is present in the silence. He is not absent when He is quiet. Holy Saturday teaches us that waiting is not wasted time, but it is the soil in which resurrection faith grows. The disciples could not see what was happening in that tomb. Neither can we always see what God is doing in our dark seasons. But the stone was never the last word. 

RESPOND 

• Where are you currently living in ‘Holy Saturday’? Are you in a season of waiting, silence, or unresolved grief? 

• The disciples scattered and hid. When have you been tempted to abandon your faith or community in a season of loss? 

• What does it mean that Joseph of Arimathea gave his own tomb…his own burial place…to Jesus? What does sacrificial generosity look like in a season of grief? 

• How does trusting God’s activity in the silence require a different kind of faith than trusting Him in the obvious moments? 

REFLECTION & PRAYER 

Begin this time by sitting quietly for one minute to focus then do the following: 

• Identify where you are living in ‘Holy Saturday’. Are you in a season of waiting, unresolved grief, or unanswered prayer. 

• Practice 10 minutes of silent prayer. No words. Simply be present to God in the not-yet. 

• As you finish your time of silent prayer, say these words out loud: “Father, I trust You even when I cannot see what You are doing. The tomb was not the last word, so teach me to trust You in the silence. When I cannot see what You are doing, when I cannot feel Your presence, when the stone seems permanent remind me that You have never once left a grave as the final word. I will wait. Amen.”