The second of my four Easter Workshop meditations on Easter Saturday

Evening Prayer, Good Friday

Psalm 22:1-2 

 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? 
       Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning?

Isaiah 42:1-4 

 "Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
       my chosen one in whom I delight;
      … A bruised reed he will not break,
       and a smouldering wick he will not snuff out.

Matthew 27:50-51

And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split.

Reflection

“We are living in a world of Easter Saturday:

Somewhere between the death

            Of what we thought we could trust

And the birth of new hope”

 

We are at the start of the Jewish Sabbath that Jesus would have known. It is Easter Saturday, the day after Jesus died, the awful day before Easter morning.
Today, we know that something huge has happened, but at that moment it was invisible to the world. Today we know that resurrection is just around the corner, but at that moment all hope had been destroyed.

So, now we are abandoned, left for a day.

The world around us crumbles,
the security we thought we had evaporates.

What have we to offer? So few, so scorned, so invisible;
what have we to offer an Easter Saturday world?

Here, on Easter Saturday,
a bruised reed – thrown away by the musician;
a smouldering wick – giving no light,
is all that our Lord needs
to do a wonderful, invisible work.