LUKE 23:55-56

The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.

TO PONDER

Holy Saturday, as it is sometimes called, has always been a strange part of the Easter weekend for me. We do church on Good Friday and remember Jesus suffering and death. We then do church again on Easter Sunday and celebrate Jesus' resurrection and his victory over sin and death for us. But what do you do with Saturday?

For the Israelites, and for Jews today, Saturday is the Sabbath day, a day of rest. Between sunset on Friday and sunset on Saturday, no work was to be done at all. In fact, there were, and still are are, very strict rules about what a Jewish person can and cannot do on the Sabbath. These women would have worked and prepared all that they needed to properly anoint Jesus' body until sundown on Friday evening but then there was nothing they could do for the next 24 hours but rest and reflect on all that had just happened.

My wife and I were just reflecting recently that although we are glad that we no longer live under pandemic lockdown restrictions, there was something about the pace of life under those conditions that we miss. There is something important about taking time to slow down and contemplate the things that really matter. You might think that anointing someone's dead body before the stench of decay starts to set in might be an important task to get done as soon as possible, but these women rested because that is the pattern God had established for them and obeying the will and commands of God was their top priority.

I know that in all the Easter weekend shop closures that Easter Saturday is one chance to get out and 'get stuff done'. But can I encourage you today to just rest. Take this one day to sit and consider the things that really matter, to be with the people God has placed in your life who love you and care for you. Enjoy this day of the Easter weekend where 'nothing happens' and rest in God's presence. After all, that is the reason he gave the Sabbath in the first place.

PRAYER: Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the Universe. You have called us to cease from striving, to step away from burdens, and to enter Your holy rest—not as a law, but as a gift. Teach us to trust that the world does not turn by our hands, but by Yours. And as we rest, may we look to Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath, who gives rest for our souls, now and forever. Amen.

Today's devotion written by Mathew von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle