Have you ever wondered what Holy Saturday sounded like?
The day after empire executed the man they deemed an insurrectionist. The day before death lost its final say in this world. A day when hope felt like it had been sealed forever shut behind a tombstone.
What sounds will echo across the world this year for Holy Saturday?
Cries of families being torn apart by ICE raids in American neighborhoods? The slam of detention center doors?
…Or will there be stillness?
The quiet absence of workers and student protestors disappeared into a broken immigration system. The silence of the world watching.
These are the sounds of a Holy Saturday kind of world.
“If you have come here to help me you are wasting your time, but if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.” – Lilla Watson
Embracing a Holy Saturday kind of faith means living into the truth that “your liberation is tied up with mine.” That our liberation, the world’s liberation, is tied up with one another. Embracing the in-betweenness of our world today means embracing that on Friday, Jesus didn’t say that he was finished; he said the work was finished.
The work that God, the Great I Am, came to earth through a birth canal and took on embodied human-ness to complete…was completed. And that work that he completed hanging from that cross enabled the work he left for us, his image bearers, to carry forward.
Following Jesus in this in-between world requires a faith rooted in solidarity, in sacrifice for one another, and in prophetic imagination for the world that will be. A world with an arc that bends toward justice.
A faith that asks what it means to have your liberation tied up with your neighbor across the street, Palestinians in Gaza, and the Mixed lineage Jew from Palestine who was nailed to a cross on a Friday and conquered death on a Sunday.
So I must ask…
What would Holy Saturday sound like on your block if you fanned into flame the prophetic imagination of a faith anchored in solidarity, and fueled by the hope that even in the silence, resurrection is coming?
Katie Nguyen Palomares is a Mixed Vietnamese/White activist, writer, and preacher currently living in Austin, TX. She serves as the Program Manager for Kingdom Capital Network, supporting primarily Black & Brown small business owners to make a Kingdom impact in their communities through their work. She also serves on the Digital Team for Chasing Justice and co-hosts The Beauty In-Between podcast with her husband. She earned her M.A. in Christian Leadership from Dallas Theological Seminary and her B.A. in English with teacher certification from Texas State University.
The views and opinions expressed on the Chasing Justice Blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Chasing Justice. Any content provided by our bloggers or authors are of their opinion and are not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, individual or anyone or anything.
