Day 28: “Waiting on the Third Day”

Day 28

Faith in the Midst of a Pandemic

A series of daily reflections for people of faith

by Rev. Robert Bayley, Interim Pastor

Patuxent Presbyterian Church, California, Maryland

WEEK FOUR SATURDAY: 11 APRIL 2020

HOLY WEEK: HOLY SATURDAY

“Waiting on the Third Day”

O God, Creator of heaven and earth: Grant that, as the crucified body of your dear Son was laid in the tomb and rested on this holy Sabbath, so we may await with him the coming of the third day, and rise with him to newness of life; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

- Prayer for Holy Saturday, The Book of Common Prayer

We are in the midst of a time of waiting unlike any of us have ever known, immersed in a pandemic of unknown duration. As time goes by it’s getting harder to ‘feel’ normalcy, to know what it will be like when it is all over. While the projected number of deaths keeps climbing, something within us has already, in a subtle way, died, so that even when this is over there will remain hanging over us an invisible pall, an existential awareness that it could happen again.   

Juxtaposed against this present darkness is an internal dynamic given us by God, the capacity for waiting. It can’t be explained, but it certainly can be experienced, even as a strong inner yearning. As we wait for a ‘third day’ during this pandemic, we know that our eternal ‘third day’ has already come, in the words of the Creed, “The third day He rose again from the dead.”

There are times in our lives when something within us has died – it can be a dream of a personal goal in life that never materialized or, once realized, was shattered for whatever reason; a relationship we coveted that went bad; a personal failure that caused the image we have had ourselves to die. We look in these places for life but find none. In all such places Jesus has a ‘third day’ waiting for us, not a restoring of what was lost but His life coming into those areas that have died so we can know what it is to ‘rise to newness of life’ in Him.   

Reflective question: Where in your life are you waiting for a ‘third day’ this Easter?

Reflective scripture: 1 Corinthians 15:20,22

“But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead,…so in Christ all will be made alive.”

Reflective hymn: “Because He Lives” – Gloria (1942-) and Bill (1936) Gaither

God sent His Son they called Him Jesus;

He came to love, heal and forgive.

He lived and died to buy my pardon;

an empty grave is there to prove my Savior lives.

Because He lives, I can face tomorrow;

 because He lives, all fear is gone.

Because I know He holds the future,

and life is worth the living just because He lives.