Darkness Saturday Reflection, Christ The KING Presbyterian

Darkness Saturday?

Reflection

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Video Introduction https://www.instagram.com/reel/CqwPucRADJe/?igshid=YjNmNGQ3MDY%3D

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Unlike Worship Services, Darkness Saturday is an attempt to return us, as best possible, to that First Saturday after Good Friday, and the just what the Disciples of Christ must have thought.

In our own quarantine during 2020 can only provide the lockdown feeling though not the threat of arrest leading to quick execution, as was done to First Century Citizens of Rome, who were not Romans.

So, this Vespers is very Short with mostly self-reflection on just how astonishing that First Easter Sunday was.

We will not be singing and I would ask we not gather in large groups as the first Darkness Saturday was lived in fear and crushing despair as Jesus Was CLEARLY Dead and indeed buried! (Please remember one of Gospel writers was a Medical Doctor and investigated and proved all, so yes Jesus was dead)

In the 21st Century we might not have an appreciation for this despair and as many well-meaning Churches practice, to set up “vigils” literally watches, seems to not be the case this Darkness Saturday.

Well let’s again gasp the reality of our First Saturday and be blunt Jesus was DEAD, and Dead people don’t rise from the dead and walk talk and eat, so YES Jesus IS DEAD!!! (Sorry to keep repeating this but it must be our Foundational understanding)

Now if you don’t believe me, perhaps this experiment will make it crystal clear;

Take a chair to your local Cemetery and food for two weeks and sit in front of a loved one’s grave, or a freshly interred person and keep a vigil, waiting for the person to rise from the dead.

Yes, this is nuts to ask, but so are Darkness Saturday Vigils as our First Saturday Brothers and Sisters were crushed, and in hiding.

They were NOT, Yes NOT expecting Jesus to rise from the Dead, just as they refused to accept, HE was going to be crucified, even though Jesus told them over and over about Both!!!!!

It might also help us to remember, that when this Saturday Sabbath was over, the Two Mary’s were going to the Grave not to bring food, nor fresh clothes, as our Sisters were bringing embalming materials.

By setting this mindset table we will be able to at least dip our toe into the Stunning, and Earthshaking (literally too) Resurrection of Jesus, and just how they must have had to come to grips with this Amazing and Very True News that Jesus is Really alive.

So let’s take this Saturday to appreciate that first Observers of Darkness Saturday, and that we get to enjoy each Saturday since that first one KNOWING That Jesus Did Indeed do all HE set out from the beginning of time to do and that HE has never lied, and will indeed return As HE Promised and in the Timing of HIS and Our FATHER.

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Here are our Readings

Isaiah 53:7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.

?8 By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut off out of the land of the living For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due?

?9 His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.

?10 ? But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.

?11 As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities.

?12 Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the booty with the strong; Because He poured out Himself to death, And was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the transgressors.

(NAS95)

Matthew 27:57 ? When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus.

?58 This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him.

?59 And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth,

?60 and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock; and he rolled a large stone against the entrance of the tomb and went away.

?61 And Mary Magdalene was there, and the other Mary, sitting opposite the grave.

Luke 23:55 Now the women who had come with Him out of Galilee followed, and saw the tomb and how His body was laid.

?56 Then they returned and prepared spices and perfumes. And on the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.

John 19:41 Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid.

?42 Therefore because of the Jewish day of preparation, since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

(NAS95)

?Matthew 27:62 Now on the next day, the day after the preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered together with Pilate,

?63 and said, "Sir, we remember that when He was still alive that deceiver said, 'After three days I am to rise again.'

?64 "Therefore, give orders for the grave to be made secure until the third day, otherwise His disciples may come and steal Him away and say to the people, 'He has risen from the dead,' and the last deception will be worse than the first."

?65 Pilate said to them, "You have a guard; go, make it as secure as you know how."

?66 And they went and made the grave secure, and along with the guard they set a seal on the stone.

(NAS95)

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