Holy Saturday-Easter Eve

Neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption. – Psalm 16:10.

On the day that followed the day of the Preparation, hence on the Passover Sabbath, the chief priests and Pharisees came together to Pilate, saying: “Sir, we remember that that Deceiver said while He was yet alive: ‘After three days I will rise again.’ Command therefore that the sepulcher be made sure until the third day, lest His disciples come by night, and steal Him away, and say unto the people, ‘He is risen from the dead;’ so the last error shall be worse than the first” (Matthew 27:63-64). Pilate said to them: “Ye have a watch; go your way; make it as sure as ye can” (v. 65). So they went, and made the sepulcher sure, setting a watch, and putting a seal upon the stone, which would provide evidence if anyone tampered with the door of the tomb (v. 66).

Troubled by thoughts of secret unrest, they wanted to make altogether sure of keeping Jesus, whom they hated so bitterly, in death, in the grave, in decay, and in corruption, and relegate Him to utter oblivion. But here is God’s prophecy concerning Christ: “Neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption” (Psalm 16:10). God kept Christ’s body in the grave, without corruption. Death and the grave had not swallowed up and overpowered Him. The fact that Christ conquered death and the grave soon became evident, and it shall be fully evident to all the world on the Day of Judgment. Also, the present-day religious modernists, who fill so many pulpits and chairs of learning and seats of church-government and would keep Christ in the grave by denying His resurrection, shall be utterly confounded. God will make them His footstool, and they shall wail and be forced to acknowledge that the Holy One of God did not see corruption. But you, O Christian and child of God, do look upon the buried Savior with altogether different eyes; confess that He is your Substitute, who has borne your sin and suffered your death, and has conquered the grave for you, that you may live in righteousness and blessedness forever and ever.

PRAYER. – Lord Jesus, I thank Thee that Thou didst take my sin upon Thyself and didst procure for me eternal glory in heaven. Thou, the everlasting Conqueror of sin and death and the grave, grant that henceforth I may not stand in dread of death or the grave, but, that in the knowledge of Thee, may gladly lay my body down at the end of my earthly pilgrimage, knowing that I am a partaker of Thy victory; Thou, who hast abolished the terrors of the grave. Amen.

The death of Jesus Christ, our Lord, we celebrate with one accord;

it is our comfort in distress, our heart’s sweet joy and happiness.

—

He blotted out with His own blood, the judgment that against us stood;

He full atonement for us made, and all our debt He fully paid.

(Hymn 163, st. 1-2; TLH)