Silent Saturday

Montana Bible College Dean of Students & Discipleship Carter Knight composed a series of short devotionals for Holy Week. We hope they encourage you and help prepare your heart for worshiping our risen Savior! 

There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God. 

- Hebrews 4:9

Did Jesus cry in the manger when he was wrapped in his swaddling cloths? Certainly he made no sound when he was wrapped in his burial cloths. It was a silent Saturday when he descended to the dead. The grave gave no sound and the sepulcher was silent. Christ had died to forgive the sins of his people. He was verified as dead before he was buried, pierced in his side and punctured through the heart. Whoever else shed tears, Christ shed no tears in his tomb.

Yet, he would soon rise again to wipe away every tear from the eyes of all who believe in him. Ever since the days of Noah, whose name means rest, the people of God have waited for one who will give them rest. Indeed there is no rest for the wicked, and even the hearts of God's people are deceitfully and desperately wicked.

To this point, consider how even Joshua of old – whose name, like Jesus, means “the LORD saves” – could not bring the people of God into rest because of their unbelieving hearts. We too need God to save us from our own unbelieving hearts! Therefore, it was necessary for God to provide his people with a new heart through a new and better Joshua. This would be done through the pierced heart of Jesus, which would begin to beat again come Sunday. Through believing in the beating heart of Christ on Sunday, despite his pierced heart on Friday and still heart on Saturday, the people of God begin to pulsate with new life.

Furthermore, this new life of ours is free from the law of works. For on Saturday, Christ ceased from all his labor in a complete observance of sacred Sabbath and perfect rest. That is, for all who believe in Christ's death on Friday and resurrection on Sunday, we experience an eternal Saturday of Sabbath rest. This means that through faith in Christ we may rest in the perfect peace of God. All who are weak, weary, and heavy-laden with guilt for evil works done and good works left undone may now come to Christ to find rest for their souls.

God did not need to rest from his labor when he first created the world in Genesis 1, nor did his Son need to rest in peace inside the grave. Yet, for the blessing of creation and the redemption of creation, he did both. Today, let Christ's pierced, peaceful, beating heart bring rest to yours. As St. Agustine aptly said, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”