I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be held a prisoner in Hades. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead. Rise up, work of my hands, you who were created in my image. Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me and I in you; together we form one person and cannot be separated.
An Ancient Homily for the Great and Holy Saturday
Despite everything, I think Satan meant well. How else did he pave that road? Maybe he had half of the equation right: we have to die. But he stopped there, in the darkness, and it seems like he got pissed off. He’s like one of those people with the bumper sticker saying, “if you are not outraged, you are not paying attention.” It’s true that there is darkness, and anyone who doesn’t see it or refuses to see it is either incredibly naive or deeply in denial. Those people are hard to be around, but so are the people who think that dwelling in the darkness makes them cool or deep somehow.
Because death and darkness are not the end of the story. Life is the end, particularly if we understand “end” not as a stop sign but as a goal. If St. Epiphanius is quoting Genesis correctly (which he is), then we are created in the image of the one who is life. Our destiny is to live. That doesn’t stop us from dying though, and it did not stop Jesus from dying.
But even death can have a purpose if it is turned to the end Jesus is aiming at. On this Holy Saturday, with Jesus dead and in the tomb, he is bearing witness to the fact that death has done all it can. Satan has done all he can. The whole thing is played out. There’s a darkness in the house that’s got the best of us, and there’s a darkness in this world that’s got us too.
They can’t touch Christ now, and Satan can’t touch Christ now. Their not going to do to us what he watched them do to Eve. It’s Independence Day, but there are not fireworks in the sky. God has to let go of one of God’s creations, and that is not something God rejoices over. Jesus descends into the very darkest regions to call out everyone who recognizes the Divine Voice. There are some, however, who just see things in different ways.
And now it is getting late. There is a strange silence all around. Soon a new thing will happen, and what was broken will be made whole. For all it has cost, Jesus would not change this thing even if he could somehow.