In a liturgical year, Passion Week is the week prior to Easter. It is also known as Holy Week. The week can be divided into Palm Sunday, Holy Monday, Holy Tuesday, Holy Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday.
The seventh day of Passion Week is Holy Saturday. The Lord Jesus experienced all the pains of earth and died while nailed to a cross. He rested from His labor away from all the criticisms and attacks of the world in the new grave of Joseph, a rich man from Arimathea.
In the Pentateuch, there are two recordings about the Holy Saturday but had different contexts. Exodus 20:8-11 remembers God resting on the Sabbath Day after His creation work and Deuteronomy 5:12-15 remembers the salvation of God on the Sabbath.
The recording about the Sabbath in the book of Exodus was that God made heaven and earth, and all that is in them, but rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord asks the people to join him the Sabbath He had prepared. This is a lesson about faith and to remember God's creation.
Deuteronomy reminded the Israelites to remember the salvation of God on the Sabbath because God brought them out of Egypt. He freed them from slavery and they experienced God's salvation.
Are God's creations and His salvation related? For Moses and the people in that era, being saved from slavery in Egypt is a new creation by God. They also entered into the salvation that God had prepared. God's purpose in creating them was completed.
Christians today also experience God's re-creation. Just as it is written in 2 Corinthians 5:17, "So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!" Those who truly completed the tasks God gave them are the ones who have His salvation.
Ever since Adam and Eve sinned and lost their peace, the Bible has talked about how people can have peace. The true realization of the hope of peace is in Jesus Christ, and his salvation brings it.
Jesus rested after the suffering on the cross. He bore the sins of man on the cross, so whoever receives His salvation has peace.
Jesus Christ rose from the dead on the first day of the week. Protestants choose this day for worship as an example to Christians of entering the salvation prepared by God on the first day of the week, and so that they can live in peace prepared by God all week.
Translated by: Grace Hubl
