Today is Holy Saturday—sometimes called Great Saturday or Black Saturday. It’s the day between Good Friday (on which we remember Jesus of Nazareth’s death by crucifixion) and Easter Sunday (the day we remember and celebrate Jesus’ victory over sin and death through his resurrection) but in most churches, this day is not usually celebrated. Instead it is the day of an Easter Vigil, or a day of preparation for Easter Sunday. But Holy Saturday is one of my favorite days of the church year, because it’s the day which best reflects the Christian life with its tension between the promised future of God and the uncomfortable present.

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The In-Between

I’ve said before in some other places that Holy Saturday is a day when nothing really happens: Jesus is dead. There is a reference in 1 Peter 3 to some activity on the day Jesus spent dead (namely preaching to “the spirits in prison”) but if I’m honest no one is really sure what that means. I think the important part of the story is simple that Jesus of Nazareth, the incarnate Word of God, is dead.

[Christ] was put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah…

1 Peter 3:18b–20a (NRSVUE)

Looking back with the clarity of time, we know that Jesus is resurrected. God raises Jesus from the dead in the power of the Holy Spirit, and in doing so inaugurates the new creation that God has promised: the reign of God. With the resurrection, the perfect world of justice, peace, and love breaks into our world, and with it the hope of an end to sickness, suffering, and sin.

But that new creation isn’t here yet either. It has begun, but it also feels far away. Just as it felt like the Roman Empire was victorious in its exercise of violence when Jesus was crucified, it feels like the power of today’s Empire is stronger than ever. The reign of God doesn’t feel like it’s breaking into the world; it feels like it is being squashed. Just like when Jesus died.

We live on Holy Saturday. Empire feels like it has won; the victory of the reign of God feels far away. And yet, the resurrection brings life from death—the in-breaking of the reign of God is happening. Even on this darkest day of the church year, the call of the church is to bear witness to the reign of God, especially when the night is darkest: to proclaim to the night that dawn is coming.

For after Holy Saturday, with its darkness and uncertainty, comes Easter Sunday; after this world and its totalistic Empire comes the reign of God. Justice, peace, and love are coming—not only that, they are already here—to bring an end to injustice, suffering, and sin. That is the hope and promise of Holy Saturday, a day of mourning and anticipation of what is here-and-not-yet-here.