Holy Saturday

The Collect:

O God, Creator of heaven and earth: Grant that, as the crucified body of your dear Son was laid in the tomb and rested on this holy Sabbath, so may we await with him the coming of the third day, and rise with him to newness of life; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

First Lesson: Job 14:1-14 or Lamentations 3:1-9,19-24

¹“A mortal, born of woman, few of days and full of trouble, ²comes up like a flower and withers, flees like a shadow and does not last.³Do you fix your eyes on such a one? Do you bring me into judgment with you? ⁴Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? No one can. ⁵Since their days are determined, and the number of their months is known to you, and you have appointed the bounds that they cannot pass, ⁶look away from them, and desist, that they may enjoy, like laborers, their days.

⁷“For there is hope for a tree, if it is cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its shoots will not cease. ⁸Though its root grows old in the earth, and its stump dies in the ground, ⁹yet at the scent of water it will bud and put forth branches like a young plant. ¹⁰But mortals die, and are laid low; humans expire, and where are they? ¹¹As waters fail from a lake, and a river wastes away and dries up, ¹²so mortals lie down and do not rise again; until the heavens are no more, they will not awake or be roused out of their sleep. ¹³Oh that you would hide me in Sheol, that you would conceal me until your wrath is past, that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me! ¹⁴If mortals die, will they live again? All the days of my service I would wait until my release should come.

or

¹I am one who has seen affliction under the rod of God’s wrath; ²he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light; ³against me alone he turns his hand, again and again, all day long. ⁴He has made my flesh and my skin waste away, and broken my bones; ⁵he has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation; ⁶he has made me sit in darkness like the dead of long ago. ⁷He has walled me about so that I cannot escape; he has put heavy chains on me; ⁸though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer; ⁹he has blocked my ways with hewn stones, he has made my paths crooked. ¹⁹The thought of my affliction and my homelessness is wormwood and gall! ²⁰My soul continually thinks of it and is bowed down within me.

²¹But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: ²²The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; ²³they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ²⁴“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”

Psalm: Psalm 31:1-4,15-16

¹ In you, O Lord, have I taken refuge;
  let me never be put to shame; *
       deliver me in your righteousness.
² Incline your ear to me; *
       make haste to deliver me.
³ Be my strong rock, a castle to keep me safe,
  for you are my crag and my stronghold; *
       for the sake of your Name, lead me and guide me.
⁴ Take me out of the net that they have secretly set for me, *
       for you are my tower of strength.
¹⁵ My times are in your hand; *
       rescue me from the hand of my enemies,
       and from those who persecute me.
¹⁶ Make your face to shine upon your servant, *
       and in your loving-kindness save me.”

Epistle: 1 Peter 4:1-8

¹Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same intention (for whoever has suffered in the flesh has finished with sin), ²so as to live for the rest of your earthly life no longer by human desires but by the will of God. ³You have already spent enough time in doing what the Gentiles like to do, living in licentiousness, passions, drunkenness, revels, carousing, and lawless idolatry.

⁴They are surprised that you no longer join them in the same excesses of dissipation, and so they blaspheme. ⁵But they will have to give an accounting to him who stands ready to judge the living and the dead.⁶For this is the reason the gospel was proclaimed even to the dead, so that, though they had been judged in the flesh as everyone is judged, they might live in the spirit as God does.

⁷The end of all things is near; therefore be serious and discipline yourselves for the sake of your prayers. ⁸Above all, maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins.

Gospel: Matthew 27:57-66 or John 19:38-42

⁵⁷When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who was also a disciple of Jesus. ⁵⁸He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus; then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. ⁵⁹So Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth ⁶⁰and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock. He then rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb and went away. ⁶¹Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb. ⁶²The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate ⁶³and said, “Sir, we remember what that impostor said while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ ⁶⁴Therefore command the tomb to be made secure until the third day; otherwise his disciples may go and steal him away, and tell the people, ‘He has been raised from the dead,’ and the last deception would be worse than the first.” ⁶⁵Pilate said to them, “You have a guard of soldiers; go, make it as secure as you can.” ⁶⁶So they went with the guard and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone.

or

³⁸After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, though a secret one because of his fear of the Jews, asked Pilate to let him take away the body of Jesus. Pilate gave him permission; so he came and removed his body. ³⁹Nicodemus, who had at first come to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about a hundred pounds. ⁴⁰They took the body of Jesus and wrapped it with the spices in linen cloths, according to the burial custom of the Jews. ⁴¹Now there was a garden in the place where he was crucified, and in the garden there was a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid. ⁴²And so, because it was the Jewish day of Preparation, and the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

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