Holy Saturday: Holding out hope

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Today we find ourselves in the space between.

Between the sorrow of Good Friday and the joy of Easter morning. Between grief and glory. Between what has been lost and what will be restored.

There seems to be little agreement on what we call this day: Holy Saturday, Silent Saturday, Waiting Saturday, or simply Easter Saturday. It is a day where hope is alive, but not yet whole. It is a day where we wait for God to move, but have not yet seen the fullness of his promise. Whatever we call it, it carries an ordinary honesty: most of life feels like this.

On Holy Saturday, the disciples sit in the tension of ‘not yet.’ Jesus has breathed his last. The tomb is sealed. The future feels uncertain. And yet, somehow, hope is holding on.

Matthew 27:59 and 60 read: ‘Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away.’

Matthew’s Gospel lingers here for a moment. The stone was rolled and the tomb was closed. Joseph of Arimathea – who had become a disciple of Jesus – visited in solemn duty and went away in silence. There were no angels, no crowds, no miracles, no profound words of teaching.

Each person knows something of the space between suffering and restoration, between the prayers we pray and the answers we long for, between what is broken and what will be made whole. Holy Saturday gives us permission to pause here – to breathe, to rest, to trust and to wait.

Hope for our whole lives

We are invited to practise a hopeful stillness and a sacred pause. So today, in quiet trust that God is doing more than we can see, reflect on these questions: In your life, where are you sitting in an ‘in‑between’ space? Where does hope feel fragile or unfinished? Where do you need patience, rest or reassurance of wholeness?

Hold on and allow your hope to be tender and honest, not forced and frustrated. Rest in the knowledge that God is faithful, even when the path ahead is not yet clear.

Let us pray

Lord, on this day of quiet waiting, teach me to rest in your presence even when answers feel far away. Remind me that you are always working, even in silence and stillness. Help me trust you in the waiting and prepare me for the joy that is coming.