Today is Holy Saturday. It is the space between death and life. Why is this space necessary? Might it not be to show us that our common view of life arising from death, as spring follows winter, is a false one? Jesus could have been raised on Saturday (Sabbath) and imagine the field day the early church could have had with that one re-imaging the Sabbath eschatologically. This day is essential to the passion narrative. It separates death from the Life that comes from the promise of the future. It ends all cyclical reasoning that death brings life. Jesus is not some human phoenix. The notion that life comes from death is known as the process of the sacralization of the victim. First, the victim is demonized, then, as a result of the benefits of peace, unity, etc they bring to the community in their lynching by the community, the victim is divinized. Life comes from the death of scapegoats. That is the way of the world. Holy Saturday reminds us that Jesus death produces no new cultural benefits such as scapegoats bring. His resurrection is not a natural follow up to his death. Jesus resurrection is altogether eschatological; if it is not recognized as such we simply turn this weekend into another changing of the seasons, as though resurrection naturally followed death. This day mitigates that. Holy Saturday puts distance between death and resurrection in order to show clearly that while the passion narrative is structured along the lines of myth, and reveals the lie of myth, it ultimately deconstructs myth with the space of this one day. Holy Saturday might be better called Un-Holy Saturday for the way it deconstructs the sacred (the holy).
Posted on: Sat, 19 Apr 2014 12:02:12 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015