Silent Saturday. This is what today – the day between the cross and the empty tomb – is sometimes called. It is a day that both God and Christ were silent. This morning, it occurred to me that for the followers of Jesus, it was also “shut-in Saturday.” They were sheltered in place. If they showed their faces, they would be arrested – and perhaps brutally beaten or crucified, too. The authorities were watching for them.
The big difference between those Believers and the Believers of today who are sheltered in place was the silent part. We can stand in our doorways or our windows and shout praise to the name of Jesus. The followers of Christ on the silent Saturday before Resurrection day could not do this. Singing praise to the Lord or shouting His name would have been a sure death sentence for them.
What they were, that we are not, was together. Yet, we have social media and video chats and telephones – ways to be together in fellowship, even though we are not together physically. Their only communication between small groups was a messenger with a note – a messenger who might not make it to his or her destination.
So, as we shelter in place on this Silent Saturday, let us remember the many blessings we have as 21st Century Believers in Jesus Christ and be thankful that we do not have to be silent!