I know Easter week is full of days to commemorate the last week of Jesus’ earthly ministry leading up to the cross and the empty tomb. There’s Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday.

It has always struck me that there isn’t anything for the Saturday in between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. I suppose maybe there’s some kind of Catholic or Orthodox service on that day, but I haven’t heard of anything.

I wonder if it’s because Saturday is a kind of in-between day. Back then, the disciples didn’t know what was coming the next day, so for them Saturday was processing the end of all they had experienced with the Messiah (or who they thought had been the Messiah).

They had seen a very disfigured, very dead Jesus taken off the cross and placed in a tomb. As far as they were all concerned, it was over. Grave dead kind of over. There’d be no Lazarus walking out of the tomb kind of miracle. Who would do the raising?

This is where I like living on the other side of the story. I know how the next day played out and how it changed how we view Good Friday and the Saturday that followed. I love how the tomb turned out to be a three-day rental instead of a permanent monument to a dead leader.

Because of Easter Sunday, Good Friday is good. Because of Easter Sunday, the worst we go through doesn’t compare to the glory that’s coming. Because of Easter Sunday, the bad is not final and defeat is not forever, but the victory has already been won.

So Saturday doesn’t mean the end but a kind of prelude to a new beginning. A beginning of hope and joy and grace and victory forever.