Unvarnished Jesus: A Lenten JourneyMuestra

Holy Saturday, April 20

John 19:31–41

Jesus Is dead

And so, on Holy Saturday, our six and half week journey through Lent comes to end — the Lenten journey ends with Jesus in a tomb. Yes, we know that tomorrow is Easter, but we should not rush past Holy Saturday. Long before Nietzsche used the phrase “God is dead” to describe the spiritual condition of late modernity, the early Lutherans used it in a Holy Saturday hymn. There truly was a time when it could be said that God is dead, because whatever it means for a human being to experience the final dissolution of death, God in Christ has fully experienced. This is the ultimate expression of God as Emmanuel. Jesus Christ is God with us, not only in birth and life, but also with us in suffering and death. Amen.