April 11 this year is the Saturday before Easter.

Christians have much to ponder on the day before and the day after. The Bible records many events on both days.

Good Friday is the day on which Jesus was crucified. It is a day to mourn for sin, lament the evil that human beings do to each other, and ponder the brokenness of the world. It is a day to remember that it was all of this evil and brokenness that drove Jesus to the cross, to remember that Jesus chose to take all of this evil and brokenness on Himself. It was a terrible price to pay.

Easter Sunday, two days later, is the day on which Jesus rose from the dead. It is a day to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection, new life, forgiveness, and the promise of eternal blessings.

But, for the Saturday in between, there is very little to be said. The only Bible verse about this day is the second half of Luke 23:56. There it says that the women who followed Jesus “rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment” (NIV). It is the time when we recognize our sinfulness and brokenness and our inability to do anything about it, the time when we must endure the silence of God, waiting for Him to say or do something. In the meantime, the only thing we can do is do what God has told us to do (obey the commandments, even though they are old and God is giving us nothing new), rest in the assurance that God will do something (even though we cannot discern what could possibly be done to correct a hopeless situation), and wait for God to act.

Silent Saturday is the day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, but it is also something we experience at various other times and in various ways.

Oh, there is one other passage in the Bible about Silent Saturday. Matthew 27:62-66 tells of the Romans and the Jewish religious   leaders, who violated the Sabbath in order to try to prevent the resurrection, but that is of no concern to Christians. Such efforts have no power to prevent the resurrection, which came anyway and will come anyway.