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Many of us spend quite a bit of our time in this liminal space that Holy Saturday represents: struggling with doubt, struggling with hell on earth, and struggling with work insistent and yet unfinished.
And while we can acknowledge that this particular Friday is “good,” in remembrance of the life of Jesus, this day also marks a horrific, unjust, and violent death of an innocent man. On this day, the cross and the lynching tree both speak.
Are our songs of praise and adoration only for the rich and the powerful? Is our respect and admiration only for the well-connected? Are offers of rehabilitation and restoration only for the affluent and comfortable?
May we behold the most vulnerable, the outcast, and the untouchables in our midst and claim them as our parents and siblings, loving them and loving ourselves into wholeness. We need each other.
Injustice should cause us to tremble; indifference should cause us to tremble; racism should cause us to tremble; complacency should cause us to tremble; justice delayed should cause us to tremble, tremble. Were you there? And will you show up?
If Lent means anything, it is the promise of life, more abundant life, in the face of state-sanctioned violence and death.
I am a follower of Jesus not only because of the work of the Cross, but also because of the life he lived before the Cross. May we spend our lives doing what Jesus modeled for us in life: fighting the forces that diminish, dehumanize, and destroy the least and the lost.
Help My Unbelief: A Lenten Devotional. This is the first devotional of a ten-part series by Rev. Dr. Yolanda Pierce.
It may simply be enough to cry out that we stand in the need of prayer. And to know that our contradictory needs, as well as our deepest longings, are known by God.
