Silent Saturday. That’s what we’ve come to call the second day, the day between crucifixion and resurrection. For the followers of Jesus left behind to grieve and prepare his body for burial, it must have been an odd day. What should they do? Cry? Hide? Leave? What do we do in the numbing silence hours after a loved one dies? They rested and wondered what was next.
But what about Jesus? Physically, there was rest. His body lay in the tomb. Spiritually, however, something else was happening.
Upon his death, Jesus’ spirit descended to Sheol (Hades). Sheol is the biblical concept of death prior to Jesus’ resurrection. When he died, Jesus went to the place of death. Sheol is where both the faithful and the unfaithful waited. The faithful awaited the Messiah to rescue them, as referenced in Psalm 139, Romans 10:7, and Luke 16.
When Jesus descended to Sheol, he was truly experiencing death. He was really dead! He remained under the power of death. Holy Saturday reminds us that Jesus entered death and stayed dead. The gap was long enough for him to genuinely taste death (Hebrews 2:9) and to endure the anguish of being in death’s grip (Acts 2:24). He fully entered the land from which no one returns, undertaking the profound loneliness of death as part of his mission to redeem us. His disciples experienced his death as if it were permanent. Remarkably, this is good news for us.
Just as Jesus took our sins, he has also taken all our lonely dying upon himself. Let the gap be the gap.
Dr. Ron Geisler 