Jamin Bradley

From an earthly perspective, there wasn’t much going on during Silent Saturday. Jesus was dead, and his mutilated corpse was taken off the electric chair and put in the graveyard. Peter denied Jesus and returned to being a fisherman, but couldn’t even catch anything anymore. Judas had taken his life. The disciples hid themselves behind locked doors and concluded that Jesus had not been the messiah after all.

But from a spiritual perspective, there had literally never been more going on during Silent Saturday. The fuller picture of the Bible tells us that Jesus descended into the realm of the dead and proclaimed his victory to some of the most famous fallen angels. He then took the keys of death from Satan, who had gotten them long ago, which ensured that resurrection life would now be possible. After three days of going about what business he had in the underworld, he did the impossible and walked out the front door.

The cross had been a Trojan Horse all along—a bait and switch—and the principalities and powers of darkness had fallen for it. After all, Satan can’t legally kill a sinless man, since death is a punishment for sin. Satan had overstepped, and his actions had stripped him of his greatest power.

Just because it doesn’t look like God is doing anything, doesn’t mean he’s not. Indeed, he may be busier than ever. So take joy in this day, because in Jesus, even death is somehow framed as victory. And if we follow Jesus, we die differently—for he now holds the keys of death and uses them to grant his followers resurrection.