A blessed Great and Holy Saturday to you my brothers and sisters in Christ. It is the day after The Christ of God died by crucifixion on a cross. But it is also the day in which Christ rested in the tomb after his saving work, that is his Holy Passion that has freed us from sin's grip. And on this Holy Saturday, a lot of events took place, both in the natural world and in the supernatural world, all of which is good teaching for us to consume and so grow closer in faith to the Triune God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Firstly, Christ resting in the Holy Tomb after his saving work shows us that we, as followers of Christ our Lord, should also take a day of rest after a lot of work has been accomplished. Note that Christ rested on Holy Saturday, which just so happens to be the seventh day, the day that God in the Beginning rested from his great work of creating heaven and earth. This day of rest is known as the Sabbath. We Christians know for sure that Christ is the one who wrote the Law and who is the Lord of the Sabbath, meaning that he has ultimate authority over the Sabbath day. And this is what Christ says concerning the Sabbath: "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Therefore, the Son of Man is Lord, even of the Sabbath." You see my friends in Christ, the Holy Trinity gave us the wonderful gift of a Sabbath day, one full day of rest for us, rest for our souls, bodies, and minds. The Sabbath is a wonderful gift from God to give us nourishment and rest after a lot of work done. But do not let any deceivers deceive you to see this day as a day of obligation. The Sabbath is a gift from God, not an obligation from God to man for man to follow. And Christ our Lord, after his ultimate work of saving the human race from the grip of Satan, rested so as to show us a good example to follow, that after we accomplish any work, we should rest and give glory to God, so as to nourish our souls, bodies, and minds with the gifts of God: Mercy, Grace, Peace, and Love, all of which comes only from the Triune God, revealed by Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

According to the Holy Scriptures and godly traditions from the Church Fathers, there are also events that take place on earth and in the supernatural realm. One event is clear from Holy Scripture, from the Gospel of Matthew, in that the religious leaders and Pharisees asked Pilate to set up a guard around Christ's tomb. Why did they ask this? Because they knew that Christ had power, even from the grave, but still did not want to admit it, because of their pride and hypocrisy. They knew that if Christ's words were true, and he really did rise from the dead, they were in trouble, because that would have meant that they executed a man who was truly from God and of God, and that their jobs as the religious leaders would be expelled, for they for sure knew that their jobs, rooted in the Old Covenant, would be rendered obsolete with the coming of the New Covenant from God. And yes, all of this did occur, since Christ rose from the dead, and as a result the Sanhedrin was destroyed when the Romans came and destroyed Jerusalem, 40 years after Christ's resurrection, and everyone came to know that Jesus was truly innocent and truthful. This event teaches us two things: 1) that Christ is always Lord and always has the power of God, even when he was dead in the tomb on Holy Saturday, and so we can always trust Christ, and 2) we must not be like the Pharisees here, prideful and like hypocrites, so we must stay watchful and keep ourselves in check by the Grace of the Holy Spirit to act as Christians, not Pharisees.

Rooted in Apostolic Tradition, a supernatural event also occurs on this day. From the Apostles' Creed and 1 Peter 3:18-22, we can say that Jesus Christ descended into hell. Why did this happen? So that Jesus Christ, being the Son of God, would lock up the powers of sin, death, and Satan with his fallen angels, and keep them locked from the Elect of God, the ones who would choose to have faith and follow Jesus Christ. It was also to bring all those waiting in the OT time period, people like King David, Solomon, Isaiah, Ezikiel, Moses, all the faithful people of God in the OT, to bring all of them into the Kingdom of God by the Messiah. This teaches us that God never abandons his faithful and Elect, and it also teaches us to hold steadfast for Jesus, especially whenever we are suffering. It also gives us the full picture as to how Christ destroyed the powers of darkness, showing that God is the most powerful, and no other power can even compare to him. This gives us faith in God that he will protect us from all evil. He will test us, but only for the purpose of strengthening. He will always come to our aid whenever we call for him.

So yes, even though today is Great and Holy Saturday, it is a day that is important to our faith in God, and important in growing to be more faithful in God. We only have one more day to go before Great and Holy Easter Sunday. So let us rest in the knowledge of God our Father, and let us delight in the ways of the Lord, forever and ever. Amen.