If you’re counting, today is Saturday. What do we do on Saturdays?
Some are recovering from last night’s hangover and are planning tomorrow’s hangover. Some will be doing chores. Some spending time with families. Some just chillin’ on the beach or hanging ten on a surfboard.
In Jewish communities today is the Sabbath – a day for rest and devotion. In Jesus’s community the practice of the Sabbath was wide spread. It was so engrained in the culture that even the trauma surrounding crucifixion of Jesus took a day off.
Yup, the writer of the Gospel of Mark skips reporting anything about Saturday. In the text we jump from Friday afternoon when Jesus was laid in the tomb to Sunday morning when the tomb was found empty. Mark gives us no clue what happened today. I assume that Sabbath stuff happened. I suppose that one could infer that observing the Sabbath was more important than the fact that the one who came to save the world just got killed in a most horrific way. Interesting.
I also find it interesting that even though Mark reports nothing, Borg and Crossan still find a way to fill a whole chapter (22 pages of stuff) about nothing. Only true academics could manage that feat – something well beyond even my most verbose trivia reporting abilities.
I am sure that the question of whether or not Jesus descended into hell on Saturday is important to some people but I found that it helped to put me to sleep last night. Guess there must be some value in that.
So what I am I going to report about holy week today?
Nothing.
I am going follow Mark’s example and leave you guessing about what is going on today. Plus I am going to follow Borg and Crossan’s example and take a long time to say it.