Passion Week: Holy Saturday

Activity: To do this activity you will need a yellow onion with its skin on and a HARD boiled egg (or however many you you'd like to make) to start off with. With your parent's permission and help, place a pan half filled with water on the stove, and watch the water boil.

...and wait...

and wait...

and wait...

and wait...

and oh look it's finally boiling. 

While a watched pot eventually does boil. 

It does seem hard waiting and watching for it to boil. 

Now place in some onion skins. 

If you have yellow onions you're about to see why they are called that! 

Let the skins simmer for a few minutes then gently place in the previously HARD boiled eggs. Stir gently and without much waiting, carefully lift one out with a slotted spoon...look!...

you have a golden egg. Want to make it shiny? Spray a tiny spray of cooking spray on the shell and use a paper towel. From stinky yellow onion skins you yellow dye for eggs that makes them beautiful.

Waiting is hard, very hard sometimes. And when things look bad, it can be even harder. Once the women and the couple of Jesus' disciples helped put Jesus body in the tomb, it was nearly sundown on the Sabbath. This was the FIRST DAY Jesus was dead. They had to wait until Sunday to go back to the tomb for when the Sabbath was over it would be dark and no one wants to go to a cemetery at night. They had to wait to bury Jesus properly. So when the Sabbath began, this was the SECOND DAY that Jesus was dead. 

On top of all of this, officials pleaded with Pilate to “... give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.” (Matthew 27:64) And so a seal was placed on the tomb guards had been placed there. All they had to do was wait until day four. If his body disappeared after that, Jesus had not kept His word. But to the women waiting on the Sabbath day, they must have thought among themselves just how they were going to prepare Jesus' body. It wouldn't be an easy task. Then sorrow would wash over them. Grief. Jesus was gone, dead...this couldn't be happening...and more crying...John probably gave Jesus mother a hug. It would be alright. He would care for her as Jesus had told him to...and more planning would continue among them.

Now for the guards, this was an easy job. Dead men don't run. They don't try to escape. Guarding a tomb against those rag-tag followers of Jesus, only one of whom was brave enough to show up at his execution. 

And they really only need to be here for four days or so to help stop rumors from spreading. Dead men stay dead. This was going to be a long wait for them. At least they had each other for company while waiting in the cemetery all day and night. Yep, this was going to be a long wait, but and easy job.

But God's plan was already in motion. Like the eggs being turned golden from something seemingly awful, God was about to take something awful and turn it into something wonderful: He was going to fulfill His word! The sun went down on the Sabbath and the THIRD DAY began. That's how the Jewish people count their days, from sundown to sundown. Quietly, while everyone waited, the third day had begun. No one seemed to notice. The women went to bed to get up early to go to the garden tomb to set things right. But as the moments slowly passed by...The countdown had begun...sunrise or SON RISE was coming....