Saturday, March 26, 2005
Holy Saturday
Luke 23:56 Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.
REST WELL
Once it was over, the women must have been ready to collapse from the sheer exhaustion of it all. They had followed the events of holy week. They had seen Jesus mocked, scorned, and driven out to be crucified. They had watched His bitter agony and seen the darkening of the sky. Their Friend and Master was dead and as a final act of love for their Lord they had prepared some spices to take to the grave Sunday morning. The depth of emotion these ladies had felt in the last 24 hours was tremendous.
For them, Saturday must have come as a welcome day of rest. Since the days of Moses, the Jews had observed this day of the week as a time of peace and meditation. No regular work was done.
But not in all the history of the world had there been a Sabbath Day of greater significance! For on this day the Lord Jesus Christ rested from His labors! He had endured a punishment on behalf of the whole world's sin, a punishment that could not have been carried by anyone else. Tremendous agony of body and soul had been His lot on Friday, but now He had accomplished everything the Father had sent Him to do. The cup of bitterness had been tasted and it was done.
Now Jesus could rest from His work of atonement-- and because He rested in the grave, we can look forward to the greatest Sabbath rest of all-- life forever in heaven. On this day therefore, take a moment to remember the peace and rest Jesus gave you by offering His life for your guilt. This is the peace and rest the Old Testament Sabbath foreshadowed. Take this Saturday and make it a day in which you rejoice and wait in eager expectation for the resurrection of all the dead!
"Rest well, ye holy bones and members,
For which I'll no more weep despairing,
Rest well and bring me, too, to rest!
The tomb which is assigned to you,
And henceforth no distress will hold,
Doth open heav'n to me and shut the gates of hell." 