A Reflection on Holy Saturday
By The Rev. Hayden A. Butler, Associate Rector - St. Matthew's Church, Newport Beach, California
Ps. 130 | Job 14:1-14 | 1 Pet. 4:1-8 | Matt. 27:57-66
The subtleties of Holy Saturday compel us to observe the Scripture’s sense of time, marking the progress of seasons and years by way of the seven-fold cycle of days. All our doings take place in this time: darkness and light between the eve of the first day and eve of the Sabbath, culminating in a reflective rest to mirror God’s own rest from and celebration of His good Creation.The Sabbath gathers the work of the week in a unifying commemoration, from which emerges the renewed time of the week to come.
St. John notes that the rush to finish the grisly business of the crucifixion on Good Friday stemmed from the desire to partake of the Passover celebration. A faithful Israelite, our Lord declared from the cross, “It is finished,” in the waning daylight of the sixth day: his work completed, he inaugurated the Sabbath rest. Holy Saturday initiated the ultimate Passover as the Lord of the Sabbath partook of the end of all human work by entering the place of the dead to survey and to bless the fruit of the Old Covenant: the assembled faithful of ancient Israel.
The riddle of death haunts the Wisdom tradition, particularly in the Book of Job. Job laments the brevity of human life and its disparity with the cyclical renewal of nature. For how is it that a tree regrows or waters regroup, and not those people whom God had so richly fashioned like himself, and of whom God requires so much? Yet assent to this fact is the beginning of wisdom: the fear of the Lord rises from the knowledge that we are dust. But to that dust our Lord submits as a true man, to a true death, condescending not only to share in our strength but also in our frailty.
Yet to return to the dust is but the door to the depths, nearing that nothingness over which the Spirit of God once hovered. The psalmist's cry is that of Sheol: a cry from the watery depths, ever the image of the formless and void out of which God called Creation, of the flood over which the ark floated, the sea through which Moses led the people. There the psalmist voices the cry of the faithful, those who look to the Lord as the vigilant night-watcher yearns for the relief of daylight. On this day, their diligence was rewarded as the Light of Light descended to preach and to lead out death’s captives in victory.
Let us who mark the end of the Passion’s labors now keep watch like those who once waited in darkness, as watchmen look for the morning, as though our life depends on daybreak. May we become like faithful Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, the almost unseen watchmen at the tomb, who wait and cry for life in the midst of death, who yearn without ceasing for the Lord and thus are ready to meet Him as the first day dawns.
Fr. Hayden was born in Amarillo, but migrated early in life via Albuquerque to settle in Southern California. He currently lives with his wife and daughter in Irvine. Fr. Hayden studied as an undergraduate at Biola University and the Torrey Honors Institute. He then continued his education in graduate school, earning Master’s degrees in both English Literature at UCI and Theological Studies at Regent School of Divinity.
Fr. Hayden was made a Deacon in 2014, and then ordained as a Priest in 2016. He currently serves as a bi-vocational minister based at St. Matthew’s. On the church side, he serves as an assisting priest in the areas of parish education and spiritual direction. Outside of St. Matthew’s, Fr. Hayden works as an English and Theology teacher, and is currently involved in the founding of Pacifica Christian Orange County, a Christian liberal arts school.