It was NOT a Silent Saturday!
[Inspired by “Do you hear the people sing?” @ Gotagogama, Saturday 16th April 2022]
The day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday (Resurrection Sunday) has sometimes been called “Silent Saturday”. The day seems to lie dormant between what was (or appeared to be) the terrible tragedy of Good Friday and the glorious triumph of Resurrection Sunday. On the heels of an eventful and emotionally charged Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, this Saturday might easily be dismissed as a day when “nothing much” happened… After all, Jesus was dead; the Father seemed deaf; the Spirit had not yet descended.
But “Silent Saturday” was no mere stop-gap until the dawn of Resurrection Sunday. In fact, was it even “silent”?
It was, of course, the Jewish Sabbath, and so work was forbidden. But it would hardly have been a silent Saturday for all those men and women who had encountered Jesus, come to believe in him and pledged their love and loyalty to him.
- there must have been discussions, late into the night, about the eventful week gone by…
- no doubt plans were hatched about what to do next, and hurried preparations made for the next day’s activities – including the preparation of spices to anoint the body…
- and clearly, first-century social media had been buzzing all day, because very early on Sunday, while it was still dark, a small group of women began their trek to the tomb, while a group of men must also have begun to make their way to some secret meeting-room somewhere in Jerusalem…
Skip forward 2000+ years to another Saturday, in another town, in another part of the world…
Throughout Sri Lanka and, in particular, in that newly sprung village named “Gotagogama,” it was anything BUT silent on Saturday!
All day, men, women and children had chanted, shouted and brandished their protest posters, giving voice to anguished cries for relief and angry demands for justice.
And as the sun went down, facing the Galle Face Green, watching the waves rolling ceaselessly before them, hundreds of voices rang out as one, “singing a song of angry men [and women and children]”…
– a song giving voice to a vow to never again be enslaved by corrupt rulers, to fight relentlessly for the right to be free, and to look “beyond the barricade” to a better Sri Lanka.
–a song inviting and challenging every Sri Lankan to “join in the fight that will give you the right to be free!”
No, it was NOT a silent Saturday! As Christ-followers, we are never to lose sight of the central message of the Cross and Resurrection, preached in every pulpit on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. But is there perhaps a forgotten message for us in that “Silent Saturday” – an urgent reminder to Christians that while we wait for transformation to take place and for triumphant new life to emerge, we are neither called nor permitted to remain inactive?
The Resurrection marked Jesus’ victory over death and the inauguration of God’s kingdom, a kingdom whose pillars are justice, righteousness, peace and love. The reason we continue to pray “Thy kingdom come” is because we are still living in the era of a very LONG Saturday – enduring many of the tragedies and tears of Good Friday, while the transformation and triumph of Resurrection Sunday is not yet experienced in its fullness.
While expressing hope in the “life about to start when tomorrow comes,” the song of angry men also invites urgent action now:
Will you give all you can give So that our banner may advance? Some will fall and some will live Will you stand up and take your chance?
In this long Saturday in which we live out our Christian life, we cannot, we dare not, be silent or inactive. God calls us to unceasing prayer; he also calls us to protect the vulnerable and to protest against injustice and oppression. prayer and protest are not two options between which we are free to choose as we wish, but a single coin which we offer as part of obedient worship.
Of course we must be wise about the words we speak, shout, write or post…
“There is a time to be silent and a time to speak” (Ecclesiastes 3:7) and we must discern the right place, time and tone in which we raise our voices…
And even in those moments when wisdom dictates that we be silent, this can never mean being indifferent or inactive.
Today, in our land, the beating of many hearts has begun to echo the drumbeats of justice and righteousness; we are hearing the strong, steady beat of the pulse of a people who have declared in no uncertain terms that “enough is enough!”
Our glorious resurrection hope is echoed in the “song of angry men”: “Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise”!
The Son has risen!
Let us NEVER settle for a silent Saturday!