Well, we are a week into Lent. People all over are giving things up or taking on new disciplines as a way of self-sacrifice in remembrance of what Jesus did for us. Or, you know, to quit smoking or lose weight or whatever. During this Lenten season, I'm working on a paper for my Systematic Theology class, the topic being the early church's teachings on what happened on Holy Saturday.
I'm sure all sorts of things were going on in the outside world, the disciples freaking out - packing bags and calling up relatives for a place to hang out a while until things cooled off. Those things don't interest me that much. My question is, what was Jesus doing that day. There is a pretty prevalent thought that pretty much nothing happened. Jesus was dead, laying in the tomb that day. It was the Sabbath and he was "resting".
I'm sure all sorts of things were going on in the outside world, the disciples freaking out - packing bags and calling up relatives for a place to hang out a while until things cooled off. Those things don't interest me that much. My question is, what was Jesus doing that day. There is a pretty prevalent thought that pretty much nothing happened. Jesus was dead, laying in the tomb that day. It was the Sabbath and he was "resting".
Funny thing, though... Jesus wasn't much of a Sabbath "rester" from what we see in the gospels. In fact, he was frequently at work, healing people on the Sabbath.
- Matthew 12, Mark 3 and Luke 6 all tell of when Jesus healed a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath. In Luke 6:9 he asks "is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to destroy it?".
- In Mark 1 and Luke 4 he healed a man with an unclean spirit in the synagogue.
- In Mark 6 he laid his hands on the sick and healed them.
- In Luke 14 he heals a man with dropsy, asking this question, "Which one of you will have a son or an ox fall into a well, and will not immediately pull him out on a Sabbath day?" (Luke 14:5)
- In John 5 he heals the man at the pool at Bathseda.
- In John 9 he heals the man born blind.
Jesus was very much at work on the Sabbath, and I think that Holy Saturday was no exception. In fact I believe (and the early church teaches) he was doing just what he alluded to. He was saving lives and rescuing people from a pit.
Often when I'm researching, I come across information that is very good, but just doesn't make it into my paper. Many times that information is just kind of discarded and forgotten. I'm planning on blogging my research into this topic as an experiment, then comparing it to what I actually turn in. Feedback welcome!
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