A Day of Silence and Gloom

Saturday. There is no special worship service on the Saturday of Holy Week. But it is known as Holy Saturday or The Day of Silence and Gloom. It was on Saturday that the world exeprienced the darkest day of all.

The disciples couldn’t have been any more fearful, distressed or depressed. All their hopes and dreams had been broken and then shattered with each successive hammer blow on the nails. And when they heard Jesus’ last words, “It is finished,” their hearts and spirits concurred as they spiraled down into to the darkness of depression; the kind of depression that only comes following the loss of someone you deeply love or the knowledge that everything you hold dear is gone or wrong.

Not only are there feelings of depression and anxiety there are also feeling of abandonment coupled with profound loneliness, even in a group. In their group there was a feeling of dread. Gloom covered their hearts and their eyes. So, deep and thick was the gloom and despair; so thick and overbearing that it silenced them. So they hid in the silence of their grief; hiding from the Romans as well as the Temple guards; hiding from each other; hiding from themselves.

Night was falling. The growing darkness all around matched the darkness of their hearts as they watched the stone rolled into place sealing the tomb. Shoulders slumped in defeat. Tear stained faces filled with grief covered heads hung low. They welcomed the night. It hid them from His accusers and those who had crucified Him. It hid them from each other.

They slid away into the darkness, silent and mute, too shocked, too grief filled to speak. The silence was almost deafening. Ironically, they each made their way back to the Upper Room. Where else could they go?

They sought each other's company but then remained silent and alone in their compnaionship. They could hear their own ragged breath, subdued sighs and moans of grief as loud as thunder across ocean waves. It was so loud in their own ears it occasionally made them jump in fear.

Jesus, the one they had hoped and believed was the Messiah, was dead and sealed in a tomb. It was a Day of Silence and Gloom.