Lord of the Grave

Holy Saturday is the mystery of God’s silence, and it is a great mystery.

But the Son of God cannot claim Sheol as its Lord without turning death upside down. Death cannot hold Him. He is too big. Silence cannot muzzle the eternal Word, not forever. His descent is harrowing for Hades.

Jesus rises from the grave, still the Word, dispelling fear, reassuring doubters, commissioning disciples, teaching everything concerning Himself in all the Scriptures. He twists death inside out, just by the fact of tasting death and submitting to its silence.

The Lord Jesus removes the sting, and death becomes a gate to new life; death ceases to be the end and becomes a new beginning; he cuts a backdoor in the tomb, so that it becomes a passageway.

Because He goes to Sheol as the Voice of the Father, He wrings praise from the tomb.