{"id":94864,"date":"2022-04-16T17:56:36","date_gmt":"2022-04-16T23:56:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=94864"},"modified":"2022-04-16T22:15:26","modified_gmt":"2022-04-17T04:15:26","slug":"holy-saturday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/04\/holy-saturday.html","title":{"rendered":"Holy Saturday"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
An early 12th-century Russian fresco of the Harrowing of Hell, or the \u201cDescensus Christi.\u201d\u00a0 The Savior stands upon the smashed \u201cGates of Hell,\u201d having triumphantly entered the world of spirits while his body still lay in the tomb.\u00a0 He is drawing one of the deceased saints \u2014 probably Adam \u2014 out of captivity, while others of the righteous (e.g., the kings on the right) await their salvation.\u00a0 (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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***<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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If you\u2019re perhaps wondering why the news of the atonement and resurrection of Christ is so very, very important, you might watch this eight-minute segment from CNN.\u00a0 If you can get through it without at least coming close to tearing up a bit, your heart is even harder than mine:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSome Russians think images of these killed children are fake. Keilar shows they are not: In the wake of the Russian war in Ukraine, many children have lost their lives. CNN\u2019s Brianna Keilar names some of the victims and shares their stories.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Today, which marks the Saturday between the Savior\u2019s Friday crucifixion and atonement, on the one hand \u2014 that is, Good Friday \u2014 and his resurrection sometime on Sunday morning \u2014 that is, Easter Sunday \u2014 is worthy of reflection in its own right.\u00a0 Latter-day Saints know that Jesus did not simply sleep unconsciously on that day, awaiting his emergence from the tomb.\u00a0 Instead, as President Joseph F. Smith saw on 3 October 1918 in his great vision of the redemption of the dead<\/a>, the Savior went and ministered among the spirits of those who had died before him.\u00a0 Significantly, he did so on the Jewish Sabbath, plainly exemplifying one kind of work \u2014 preaching the Gospel and saving souls \u2014 that is acceptable to the Lord on the Sabbath Day.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFor Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:\u00a0 By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.\u201d (1 Peter 3:18\u201320)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFor for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.\u201d (1\u00a0Peter 4:6.)<\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/p>

***<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Phillips Brooks is most famous as the composer of the well-known Christmas carol \u201cO Little Town of Bethlehem.\u201d\u00a0 But this verse is very nice, too:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tomb, thou shalt not hold Him longer;<\/span>
\nDeath is strong, but Life is stronger;<\/span>
\nStronger than the dark, the light;<\/span>
\nStronger than the wrong, the right . . .<\/span><\/p>\n

Phillips Brooks, \u201cAn Easter Carol\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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***<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Over the past few days, I\u2019ve made several recommendations of things to read, to do, and to hear for this Easter season.\u00a0 Last night, we ourselves met with a very small reading group to which we belong.\u00a0 This time, though, we didn\u2019t discuss a book.\u00a0 We shared thoughts about Good Friday and Easter and about what the events that these holidays commemorate mean to us.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a very great deal of good music for this season.\u00a0 For example, my wife and I are going to try to fit the Easter portion of Handel\u2019s Messiah<\/em> in, and to listen to Robert Cundick\u2019s wonderful The Redeemer: A Sacred Service of Music<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0 (For the Interpreter Foundation\u2019s short film on the late Brother Cundick, which actually incorporates small portions of The Redeemer<\/em>, see here<\/a>.).\u00a0 And we\u2019ve just returned from the very beautiful George S. and Dolores Dor\u00e9 Eccles Theater<\/a> in Salt Lake City, where we thoroughly enjoyed a matinee performance of Rob Gardner\u2019s magnificent Lamb of God<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0 (We followed it up with a small shared meal of Wienerschnitzel, Bratwurst, Rotkohl, Sp\u00e4tzle, and Sauerkraut at Siegfried\u2019s Delicatessen<\/a>, nearby.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some families, I know, like to watch Cecil B. DeMille\u2019s The Ten Commandments<\/em> at this time of the year.\u00a0 Personally, I would probably favor William Wyler\u2019s Ben Hur<\/em>.\u00a0 Or, perhaps even more, Mel Gibson\u2019s Passion of the Christ<\/em>.\u00a0 Or the remarkable 2016 film Risen<\/em><\/a>, with Joseph Fiennes in the lead role.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a comment on this blog, Carlos Lopez offered a good recommendation upon which some might want to act.\u00a0 With his kind permission, I pass it on here:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I just wanted to share one of my favorite Easter activities which is to watch Franco Zeffirelli\u2019s Jesus of Nazareth<\/em>. It\u2019s free on YouTube. It\u2019s actually a six-hour mini-series made for TV in 1977. It covers the entire life of the Savior. For Easter viewing, you can fast forward to the Last Supper until the last scene where (after His resurrection) He says goodbye to His apostles before He ascends to heaven\u2013a very touching scene where Peter and John the Beloved rests their heads on His shoulders and beg Him not to leave them.<\/span><\/p>\n

The scourging and crucifixion are not nearly as violent and dramatic as Mel Gibson\u2019s The Passion, but they are still quite dramatic and moving. Some movie portrayals of the scourging and the carrying of the cross are so toned down that they, in my opinion, don\u2019t create the love and empathy that should be felt.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is an All-Star cast with some of the world\u2019s best and most famous actors: Lawrence Olivier, Anthony Quinn, James Earl Jones, Peter Ustinov, Christopher Plummer, James Mason, Ernest Borgnine, Olivia Hussey (Mary), Anne Bancroft and Rod Steiger.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another scene that I love is when the Savior, played by Robert Powell, enters the house of sinners and preaches the Parable of the Prodigal Son. It\u2019s Shakespearean in acting and script and, or course, told in a way that you would expect the Greatest Story Teller ever to tell it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Whatever else you do, though, please don\u2019t let the feast of Christ\u2019s resurrection pass as merely yet another Sunday \u2014 let alone as simply yet another ordinary day.\u00a0 And, while there is nothing at all wrong with Easter eggs and chocolate bunnies, please don\u2019t permit those to dominate Easter to the exclusion of its very reason for being a holiday, a holy day, in the first place.\u00a0 Pass on the good news.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Easter may seem boring to children, and it is blessedly unencumbered by the silly fun that plagues Christmas. Yet it contains the one thing needful for every human life: the good news of Resurrection.\u00a0 (<\/span>Frederica Mathewes-Green)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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