By Pastor Don Schatz
All Quiet on the Jerusalem Front
You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud Link
“The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, ‘Sir, we remember what that impostor said while he was still alive, “After three days I will rise again.” Therefore command that the tomb be made secure until the third day; otherwise his disciples may go and steal him away, and tell the people, “He has been raised from the dead”, and the last deception would be worse than the first.’ Pilate said to them, ‘You have a guard of soldiers; go, make it as secure as you can.’ So they went with the guard and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone.”
Matthew 27:62-66 (New International Version)
No word about the Disciples on Holy Saturday
Hiding away in their hide-away room
Fear silenced Messiah’s followers,
Swept from the stage by the vaudeville broom
Only the opposition gets press today
And then only in Matthew’s Gospel.
Suspicious and cunning, assuming others are too;
Pilate is amenable to their proposal.
Pharaoh’s hard heart had nothing on these,
Plotting, prostituting, perverting
Life itself—body and soul—
They led the liturgical procession’s parody parade
Guarded now was the tomb
With the security of the Governor’s seal
Content now, smug in their opinion of themselves
Those to whom Scripture gives this day repaired to drink and a meal
A Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, I too have sometimes been a no-show on the spiritual stage, just like the disciples that Saturday. It seemed like the thing to do for them—you were hidden from them in the grave. Do not let me hide you again. On this Holy Saturday, I am yours through and through. May your Spirit empower my every movement today with the grace of one graced forever by You. Amen.
