By Rev. Henry Sun
Special to the Herald

On Sunday, Christians completed their annual celebration of Holy Week, the most important week in the Christian calendar.  This celebration started with Palm Sunday, reached its nadir on Good Friday, and culminated with the celebration of the Risen Lord on Easter Sunday which, in Western traditions, fell on April 1, 2018.
But what about Saturday?
Christians often are so excited about celebrating Easter that we forget that the resurrection of the Risen Lord did not occur immediately after the crucifixion of Jesus.  For some 40 hours between Friday afternoon and Sunday morning, Jesus lay in the grave, not yet risen.  And for those who followed him and put their faith in him, those 40 hours must have been excruciating.
That followers of God are sometimes forced to wait on the hand of God is one of the dominant and difficult themes of Scripture.
The promise of God to deliver the Hebrews from Egypt took 12 generations.  You could easily have been a Hebrew slave who was born in Egypt, lived in Egypt, and died in Egypt without seeing the deliverance promised by God.
Had you been an Israelite living during the period of the Judges, you might have been oppressed by a foreign government for 7 or 8 or up to 40 years.  And you might well have died under foreign rule.
And if you were living in Judah during the sixth century B.C.E., you might have been exiled to Babylon and you might have died in Babylon before the chosen people were returned to Judah.
The Saturday of Holy Week, then, falls within this same tradition even though its duration is much shorter.
It reminds us that although Easter Sunday is coming, we have to reckon with the apparent victory of God’s enemies on Saturday.
That on Sunday we will live in a kingdom in which there is no Jew or Gentile, even though on Saturday racism and white supremacy stills rear its ugly head.
That on Sunday we will live in a kingdom in which there is no male or female, even though on Saturday sexism, sexual harassment, and violence against women still happens.
That on Sunday we will live in a kingdom in which there is no slave or free, even though on Saturday income inequality, government purchased by corporations for the benefit of corporations, and the enslavement of poverty, homelessness, and hunger is still a problem.
That on Sunday we will live in a kingdom in which there will be no more death, no more mourning, no more crying, and no more pain (see Revelation 21:4), even though on Saturday cancer, HIV/AIDS, foreign and home-grown terrorism, and deaths from gun violence still run rampant.
Easter weekend reminds us both that Saturday is real and that Saturday is not the end of the story, that even though the victory of the One who created the heavens and the earth is certain, certain does not mean right here, right now.
A vibrant faith in the 21st century will not offer simple platitudes in the face of Saturday.  It will not try to blame our Saturdays on our own human sinfulness or other moral failings, even as it acknowledges that Saturday seems somehow to be woven into the ebb and flow of the history of salvation.  Instead, as we face our inevitable Saturdays in this life, a vibrant faith in the 21st century will take comfort, strength, and solace in the knowledge of God’s certain victory on Sunday, whenever that day may dawn.

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