The Saturday In-Between

It sometimes bothers me when stores decorate for a holiday too far in advance. For example, when they try to sell Christmas so early that they're still trying to sell Halloween. Now, I have nothing against Halloween as a fun/silly holiday, but it does Not belong in the same aisle as Christmas. Jesus was born in a stable, not a graveyard. But that's a rant better suited for October.

A few weeks ago, I was walking through a store and saw Easter decorations mingled with St. Patrick's Day decorations. The combination did bother me at all because the two holidays match each other's themes pretty well. The combo didn't bother me on a spiritual level either because I see the store-bought Easter, with its painted eggs and fuzzy bunnies, as so far removed from the Easter we observe at church, that they might as well be separate holidays. The fun/silly Easter lines store shelves along with the fun/silly St. Patrick's Day, while the spiritual side of Easter (hopefully) lies deeper in our hearts.

No, the reason I didn't like seeing Easter and St. Patrick's Day together in the store a few weeks ago was because I was seeing them in February. In my mind, at that time, it was a little early to start thinking about Easter. But now, it's March, mid-March even, and Easter is less than three weeks away. On that note, I hope that you'll forgive me for sharing a short message about the Atonement and Resurrection.





The "Friday" Elder Wirthlin spoke of could, symbolically, represent almost anything: a trial, our struggles with sin, an especially difficult part of mortality or mortality as a whole. Any disheartening time or experience could be called a "Friday" for the purpose of this analogy. You may be thinking of such a trial right now. Whatever the "Friday" is or was, it will be made right through the Atonement and Resurrection of Christ. As Elder Wirthlin promised, Sunday will come.

As I was watching this video, I wondered: If Friday was so terrible, but everything was fixed by Sunday, what was going on on Saturday?

I know that Jesus' body was taken off the cross and laid in a borrowed tomb (borrowed and returned a few days later), but I'm not sure which exact day that happened on. I hope it happened on Saturday, because I could really expand the analogy if it did. But even if it didn't, Saturday may still play an important part in the analogy.

If Christ was entombed on Saturday, that meant that someone had to do it. A group of people physically got the body of Jesus off the cross, physically carried it/Him (not sure which) to the tomb, dressed Him in burial clothes and laid Him in the tomb - all of which took physical effort. They even rolled that big, heavy stone in front of the door of the tomb. Don't tell me that wasn't work! The terrible Friday happened, and the wonderful Sunday came afterward, but in the meantime, there was a Saturday of work.

Somehow, those early saints came out of their grief long enough to gird up their loins and perform one final act of service in the name of the Savior. It couldn't have been easy for them, physically or emotionally, but it had to be done. So, as Christians and as people who truly love Jesus, they dried their eyes and got to work.

This is the same inspiring message we get every time a natural disaster strikes. On Friday, everything was terrible. The storm/earthquake/fire destroyed everything. Wreckage and rubble where there used to be homes. But when the earth stops shaking, when the skies clear, when the last of the fires are finally put out, the people get together to comfort one another and to rebuild. After every natural disaster in recent history, people have pulled themselves together and gotten to work. Then, in time, Sunday came.

But let's say Jesus wasn't buried on Saturday. Maybe He was buried on Friday. Maybe needing to bury the Savior was part of what made Friday so horrible for the early saints. Maybe there was no work done on Saturday at all. Saturday still happened, and there was a reason for that.

Perhaps it was out of courtesy. I'm not sure how much emotional pressure the human heart can take. Maybe having the most joyful experience in the world happen immediately after the most terrible one would be enough emotional shock to kill anyone who cared. I may be exaggerating. Still, it was kind of the Savior to give His friends some time to grieve before surprising them as He did. Or perhaps there was another reason for a Saturday of waiting.

We've been told (and I'm paraphrasing because I'm too lazy to fetch the actual quote) that our adversities and afflictions will be but a small moment, and then, if we endure it well, [blessings]. Sometimes, Friday can seem to take forever. We suffer and we suffer, and we wonder, "When will I get those blessings I was promised?" Eventually, the suffering ends, but that doesn't mean that we'll get the blessings right away. As Elder Holland said in General Conference in October of '99 (and I'll fetch this quote because it's a really good one), "Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don’t come until heaven;" Even after the trial is over, even after we've endured it well and earned the promised reward, sometimes we still have to wait. It's supposed to teach us patience, and it's just the way life is.

Whatever was done on Saturday, and whatever message we may gain from it, the overall message of that weekend and of Elder Wirthlin's talk was that Sunday will come. It may not come as quickly as we'd like, and it may take some work in the meantime, and it may only come after experiencing a Friday of pain, but it will come. God will not leave us alone. Not forever. Friday will end eventually, and Saturday won't last forever. We can all look forward to Sunday, even as we weather the storm.