A Holy Saturday lament: While Jesus lay in the tomb
Oh, Lord Jesus,
This is a Holy Saturday prayer–
remembering the silent Saturday that your body lay in a tomb,
guarded by soldiers,
celebrated by your enemies.
While your friends and followers mourned,
shocked and sickened with grief that somehow your enemies killed you.
And you let them.
You let them
betray you,
lie about you,
taunt you,
torture you,
and kill you.
How often I am like your disciples from long ago–
I sit
questioning,
pleading,
shaking in fear,
sobbing in solitude,
hiding in shame
because I think you’ve left me
because you’re silent.
What a tangle of complex emotions we feel when we think you can’t hear us–
when you’re not here–
when we act like you’re as shocked and traumatized by the world
as we are.
How agonizing was it to feel the sins of the whole world?
To succumb to death, when you have always existed?
To offer yourself to every single human being,
whom you created in your image,
knowing each of us, even before we were born?
Knowing if we would reject you or receive you?
Oh, Lord, I grieve on this Holy Saturday
for all our sins and all our fears–
for my sins
and the world’s.
Thank you for your gift of love and salvation!
Thank you for the power of your death and resurrection–
because I know that you didn’t stay in the tomb.
You only passed through it on your way to ultimate victory.
You knew you had to die to set us free for all eternity–
for life abundant now
and for life everlasting!
How great is your name, Lord Jesus!
Waiting means you’re working.
It means you’re about the shake the whole earth with your presence!
I worship you!
In Jesus’ name,
Amen.
