Bible Verse of the Day Saturday April 16th, 2022

 Holy Saturday

John 19:38 Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away.

Christians have called the day between Jesus' death and resurrection Holy Saturday for a long time. But unfortunately, the day has become simply one more ordinary Saturday for too many of us. We might have a few sober reflections on Good Friday; however, we are purchasing food, cleaning the house, and preparing for an Easter service the following morning. Jesus realized he would walk out of the Tomb, and we, as a whole, know what's coming. So why not continue ahead with the joy of Resurrection Sunday? 

The issue is that Scripture recounts the story unexpectedly. The Father didn't raise Jesus straightforwardly from the Cross. There was a day in the middle. A respite. a spacer. At the focal point of the earliest outline of the gospel, there sits the quietness of Holy Saturday. Paul told the Corinthians, "I conveyed to you as of first significance what I additionally got from Christ: that Christ died for our sin as per the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 13:3-4). Buried but not raised until the third day, why did God wait so long. What does this "dead stop" Saturday mean to us today? Do we need to observe this day as holy? Some religions celebrate Holy Saturday with exceptional services and rituals, while some say it is unnecessary. There is nothing wrong with a quiet time in the reflection of the Scriptures and prayer on Holy Saturday.

Symbolically, our minds might drift to the Tomb, which held our savior from Friday until Sunday morning. We might meditate on love so great that Christ Jesus went through the most excruciating pain that a human could suffer, for a payment in full for our sin. If it were not for the Resurrection, we would all be Hellbound because there is nothing we can do to pay our sin debt to God that all must pay. Praise God that He loved us so much that He sent His one and only Son to suffer and die on the Cross, to pay our sin debt, so that we might have eternal life available to us (John 3:16). 

I Pray that all of you might have a wonderful Resurrection Sunday morning Celebration.

May God bless all of you, your families, and your friends in a great and mighty way, this day and every day forward.  

 Matthew 27:57-66